Video-based screening for children with suspected autism spectrum disorder – experience during the COVID-19 pandemic in India

BACKGROUND: Assessments for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) must adapt to the current COVID-19 pandemic through innovation in screening and assessment strategies using technology. To our knowledge there are no such studies reported from India. We aimed to study the predictive ability of video-based screening tool with definitive diagnosis in children with ASD. METHOD: Thirty-nine children were screened independently by two examiners with a video-based screening tool to start intervention followed by an in-person evaluation by clinical DSM-5 diagnosis three months later. RESULT: Similar to studies from developed countries, videos assessments showed a 94.87% correlation with the final diagnosis. Interobserver video agreement had a kappa correlation of 0.803, which was classified as substantial agreement. CONCLUSION: Video-based evaluations may be used as an interim assessment to initiate early intervention in children with ASD in resource-limited setups in the current pandemic situation. Large, well-designed prospective studies are required to confirm our results.