Early Autism Study.

Cameron had her 9 month checkup at McMaster today. She is participating in the Early Autism Study at Rutherford Lab. She is part of the group with older siblings with a diagnosis of Autism (there is another group of babies with older siblings with no diagnosis of Autism).

At each checkup, she is run through a battery of three tests. In the first test, she is shown different faces on a screen, and filmed at the same time. They are actually able to calibrate where she is looking, so they can tell if she is looking at the person's face, eyes, etc. In the second test, she sits on my lap, and I have to try to make her smile (without tickling her). I then have to point to to different objects in the room to see if she will look to see where I am pointing. This is followed by a game of peekaboo to see if she will respond appropriately. The last part is the clinician standing behind her and calling her name out to see if she will respond to her name. In the third test, shown in the picture, she is shown two screens with blue and red dots travelling around the screen. She is filmed to see if she follows where the dots are moving.

I am thrilled to report that despite being a bit cranky, she did great. Her next checkup will be right before her 1st birthday, and the week before I (gulp) go back to work.