Find EarliPoint Autism Evaluation Near You!
What is EarliPoint?
EarliPoint is a technology that uses eye tracking to help identify autism in young children.
What does EarliPoint look like?
The EarliPoint device looks like a tablet in a metal frame. Tiny pin-hole cameras surround the tablet in the frame and track where child looks during testing.
What happens during an EarliPoint assessment?
During an EarliPoint assessment, children watch short videos while the tiny cameras track where they look on the screen. The system uses eye-tracking information to measure patterns in what children pay attention to in the short videos. The EarliPoint system analyzes the data to create a report that discusses how well a child’s looking behavior matches that of autistic children. The child’s doctor can use that report to diagnose the child with autism or not.
How does EarliPoint work?
The short videos that children watch during an EarliPoint assessment show children playing together. Children who don’t have autism will spend most of their time watching the children in the videos – watching the faces they make, things they point to, and what they do in response to the other children. Autistic children tend to be more focused on the physical environments shown in the videos – toys the video children play with, objects on the walls, and things that have interesting patterns on them. By tracking where children look, EarliPoint is able to detect patterns in the things that children pay attention to and compare those patterns to those of children who are autistic.
Who is EarliPoint for?
EarliPoint is designed for children between 16 months and 8 years of age.
Where can I learn more about EarliPoint?
You can read this article on the Autism ToolKit: https://www.autismtoolkit.org/resource/earlipoint-technology-for-early-autism-diagnosis/
And watch this video from EarliPoint Health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il43k4PAw8s
How can I get EarliPoint testing for my child?
Ask someone who is part of your child’s healthcare team (a physician, nurse practitioner, speech therapist, occupational therapist, school nurse, ect.) to send a request for an appointment to: ASD@mercer.edu.
From there, someone from Mercer University School of Medicine will reach out to you to set up an appointment.
How long does testing take?
Testing can take as little as 15 minutes. We generally schedule our appointments for an hour though, in case children need to get some energy out before testing.
How soon can I get an appointment?
Our current wait time is about 2 weeks.
What is the benefit of EarliPoint testing?
EarliPoint testing will do two important things for you and your child:
- Get the information needed to diagnose a child with autism quickly. Currently, the average wait time for autism testing in Georgia is over 1 year. EarliPoint can have results for you much sooner.
- The results of EarliPoint are accepted by Georgia Medicaid for the purposes of giving children access to early intervention services.
Who is organizing EarliPoint testing?
Mercer University School of Medicine is working to make autism diagnosis more accessible to families living in rural Georgia through their Early Autism Detection Program. Through this program, Mercer is using EarliPoint to help identify autism in young children in a timely manner and without requiring their families to drive long distances for testing.
Who can get EarliPoint testing?
Families living in Georgia. Currently, we have testing locations in: Coffee County, Jones County, Towns County, Monroe County, Laurens County, Washington County, Berrien County, and Ware County.
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