Autism Diagnosis Without Bias: Eye Gaze Technology and Equity in Action
Dr. Hanna Rue and Jonathan Lehmann join us to discuss the importance of early diagnosis and the potential of a new tool aimed at addressing health disparities, particularly for families from diverse backgrounds. In this episode, we explore the application of the EarliPoint device, which uses eye gaze tracking technology to diagnose autism in children aged 16 to 30 months. Dr. Hanna Rue emphasizes, "We all know that access to diagnostics can be extremely challenging. Within the Boston area, some families are waiting three years. Research supports that the earlier you start with services, the better outcomes you have."
Autism Diagnosis Without Bias: Eye Gaze Technology and Equity in Action
All Autism Talk
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Richie Ploesch
Jonathan, Hanna, thank you so much for joining us this week. It's a pleasure to have you.
Hanna Rue
Happy to be here.
Jonathan Lehmann
Thank you for having me.
Richie
So Jonathan, I want to start with you. We want to hear more about early tech diagnostics and the early point software. And I'm a little bit familiar with it, but I don't know that all of our listeners are. So can you just give us a summary of the technology and a little bit of how it works?
Jonathan
Yeah, so this is the culmination of over 20 years of research that originally started out of Yale that was NIH funded via grants and subsequently has moved to the Marcus Autism Center out of Children's Hospital of Atlanta. And it really is the brainchild of Dr. Ami Klin and Dr. Warren Jones, who are both PhDs within the autism space for many, many years.
So what we do is we construct a model of a kiddo's attention funnel by playing socially rich videos that enable us to pick up their eye gaze as it relates to social interactions in one minute clips. Once we have that eye gaze information, we compare that to a typically developing cohort of children in order to look at the differences in the points of attention.
So in essence, we're constructing a model of how a kiddo learns and experiences the world. And we then compare that to a typically developing cohort of children. Currently, we're indicated for diagnosis of autism within the 16 to 30 month age range. And really that enables a provider to pick up nuances that otherwise aren't really perceptible to the human eye given the fact that we pick up 120 data points per second using eye trackers that are attached to the device. So it's a combination and a combination of software, science, and then technology in order to render a diagnosis of autism in this age range.
Richie
That's amazing and there's a lot in there that that I want to dive into and first thank you for that and for assuming that I understood all of that. I appreciate that. Want to go back to something you said, right? So you said. Looking at socially relevant content, social visual engagement, right? Can you explain to us a little bit of what that means?
Jonathan
Yeah. So if you think about how language is learned, it's learned visually, visual data is incredibly rich. And if you think about how a little one learns how to speak and learns language, it starts off with understanding and their gaze receptive towards the facial expressions, the hand gestures, the parts that are the precursors to language. So we really understand from the beginning, if a kid who is paying attention receptively to these cues And then where do they take this information in response in comparison to a typically developing group of kiddos within their age range.
Richie
I like that, that essentially what you're saying is the observing is really a part of, it's a precursor to learning, right?
Jonathan
It's everything. We really are constructing a model of how a little one sees and learns the world from their perspective, which is completely unique from anything else. If you think about how diagnosis occurs now, it's a trained professional child psychologist, developmental pediatrician, pediatric neurologist observing the child or receiving feedback from the parents on what they observe. This is constructing a model into, in essence, how they're learning and how capable they are of learning social cues as well as language cues and nonverbal language cues.
Richie
Hannah, I want to come to you for a second. me why this is so important, particularly for this age group, right? I know you mentioned, Jonathan, 16 to 30 months in particular, right? Why, how is this so tangible for that group?
Hanna
Well, we know that we can diagnose autism starting at a relatively early age. So we could actually probably push it back to about a year. Not all clinicians, but those that understand autism and have been doing this for a while. But what's great about this device is we all know that access to diagnostics can be extremely challenging, especially in urban areas.
like, I'm licensed within the state of Massachusetts and within the Boston area, we have some families that are waiting three years to get access to diagnostics. And part of that is because the length of time it takes to administer all of the typical assessments that are done. And then it's also, you know, that turnaround time to get the report out. You know, and there might be some extra time where you have to get called in for a you know, a second appointment to administer additional assessments.
So it's a pretty time intensive process. And what we know about our youngest clients, our youngest patients, especially those 16 to 30 months old, that is the prime opportunity to start intensive behavioral treatment or intervention. So if a family is looking to start intervention or get supports for their child, to develop a way to communicate, to work on social skills and all of the things that we know that come along with autism. That's the prime age to get it started. Lots of research has showed us that the earlier you start, the better outcomes you have in terms of communication and enhancing an individual's quality of life.
Jonathan
Yeah, and I can add to that in that 16 to 30 month age range. There's some studies out of the Georgia Tech that show there's a 40 % higher intellectual functioning. If a kiddo can get diagnosed in treatment by age three, a $1.2 million reduction in lifetime spend on that kiddo, if they can get in treatment by age three and the last 43 % more likelihood to actually stay in traditional education versus special ed. So as Hannah alluded to, this neurodevelopmental window is so important to capitalize on in order to really maximize the benefits and the outcomes for that particular kiddo. A couple other things that filter into the diagnosis journey and it being a long one in a lot of instances, like Hannah alluded to, there's a lack of expertise within this age range and really there's a lack of providers.
It's a huge bottleneck in order to diagnose and then you overlay a couple of other pieces like in our JAMA studies where we're published, 30 % of the time experts were not confident in their diagnosis within this age range and that's because this is so early on that a lot of you know things are somewhat imperceptible to the human eye. So there's a lot of contributing factors that lead to this average age of diagnosis being more in that four to five range and have significant wait list in order to actually get diagnosed.
Richie
I like I hear that question all the time of like, well, is this my son being two years old or is there something else that's happening? And it sounds like this is the idea behind the technology is that this will eliminate some of the subjectivity, right? And make it a little bit more of an objective measure.
Jonathan
Yeah, totally more objective. The other thing is it wasn't really common for us to hear when we attended the American Association of Pediatricians meeting in October that pediatricians could tell some things off, but bringing up autism was going to be a big challenge for a number of reasons. And so what we heard pretty loud and clear is if this, if there was something out there that was objective that enabled them to dig in further as to what their concerns were.
Richie
Yeah.
Jonathan
to come back and say not only consistent or not consistent with autism, but their social delay and disability ADAS score in X. And if they have a verbal ability that's suppressed as far as age equivalency and the nonverbal learning that's suppressed as far as age equivalency, it almost gives the clinician some sort of target to refer out to a therapist to start to work on these particular areas of deficit at the time.
The one other piece that's out there is because we construct the model from a child's perspective, and Hannah's definitely seen this probably with conversations with caregivers surrounding what is autism and what is my child experiencing, we have the ability to show a heat map of exactly where their child was looking in comparison to where a typically developing child was looking.
So in essence, gives you and the caregiver insight into these little learning opportunities that are being missed by a little one that's compounding to them having deficits and develop.
Richie
So in a traditional diagnostic evaluation, it's multiple parts. There's multiple tests. It's probably several hours plus the report writing as Hannah mentioned all those things. Walk me through the process, Hannah, if you could walk me through the process of what does an early point diagnostic evaluation look
Hanna
it's been really fantastic. So I think I've been using it for maybe over a year now. And so what I'm able to do is I call this an expedited appointment. So we have children that are relatively certain that there's a question of autism. they're showing, they've likely gone through a screening showing deficits in social communication. And so when parents bring them in, We set up a little play area. I can take a look and do some observation there. And then we can fill out maybe a couple of checklists, see what's going on, get the child comfortable with the room. And then we set them in front of the device, which essentially looks like an iPad just sitting in a little holder.
So something probably very common that they see, right? Nothing too scary at all. They can sit in their caregiver's lap or they can sit on a chair by themselves. We ask that the caregiver averts their eyes so we don't accidentally get any data from their eye gaze. And they watch the screen for, you know, 10 minutes or so. It's relatively quick. And even if the child gets up and walks away, as Jonathan was talking, the data that are collected during every second that they're sitting, it really makes a difference.
So they don't need to sit for that entire time, which is fantastic because we all know that little ones like to run around. So they run around, we bring them back, they watch the videos. And the psychometrician that's assisting me can determine how much data has been collected, if they're sitting in the right spot. And then we get up, we give it about 10 minutes for the device then to do the calculations, render a report and get it to us.
I'm able to read that and then provide a diagnostic right then and there, which is again, completely different than what we see from a lot of traditional diagnostic appointments. We can get families set up for the next steps in their journey. And the turnaround for a report is really simple. So again, it's not intrusive at all. Kids have an opportunity to you know, to hang out with us for a little while and play.
They can sit in the comfort of the caregiver's lap. And caregivers are pretty impressed with it too. Again, it doesn't look like anything foreign and they recognize, a lot of our parents recognize the challenges of the eye gaze. Cause one of the things they consistently report is that the child doesn't respond to their name, doesn't look in their direction or whatnot.
So many of them have an understanding of the importance of eye gaze and eye tracking when they come in. So it's been incredible and the expedited manner with which we can do this really sets families up to get going in the next steps of their journey, which is oftentimes true.
Richie
Yeah. Right on.
Jonathan
And to add to add what Hannah said, it's really engaging content to start off with. So the fact that they're comfortable looking at screens now more and more, given the reality of how kids are developing, it's really content that draws them in. So at first it's Thomas the train, it's Elmo, and then the psychometrician or an MA or a speech therapist, whoever's conducting the actual session just pushes a play. And that starts right into the 12 minutes of curated video, we really only need two to three minutes of active viewing time in order to pick up enough data points.
In our JAMA studies, 95.2 % of the time, we were capable of generating the report like Hannah mentioned in 10 to 15 minutes after the session. So very reliable and repeatable. The system doesn't know where it's at. It doesn't know who's administering it. It just is collecting the data from the kiddo in front of it. So in essence, it's a digital biomarker.
Richie
Yeah.
Jonathan
-of how the little one is seeing and experiencing the world. In the real world, I see it's probably like one out of 25 where the kiddo is just not amenable. We're really intentional on our side at Early Tech with the implementation from an operator standpoint. So taking the time to share, hey, here's how we set up an environment to collect the most valuable data and how to run a successful session. And then we work with the practitioners, great partners like Hannah in order to go over the clinical side of what the reports actually share. Because as I shared prior, we plot severity on social disability, verbal ability, and nonverbal learning ability, and that's all just from the data points we collect.
Richie
I got to ask a question, Jonathan. it seems like, so I'm going to say this back to you, right? It's less stress for the client. You get a nice report model for the parents to be able to see and have an understanding of where the eye gaze, where their client, where their child's eye gaze is tracking. It's less burden on the diagnostician and it's a faster wait time. There's gotta be like, there are skeptics out there that are saying this is too good to be true, right? And, and- you're going to say, but wait, there's more any second. how do you, what's your response to that?
Jonathan
Yeah, I run into that often. First is we're trying to commercialize this in a 16 to 30 month old population that is probably only five to 10 % of those actually diagnosed. So those kids typically stay in a pediatrician's office because maybe pediatricians don't believe it can be diagnosed this early. Maybe they're just not aware of it. So that's one perspective. Another one is to open up the autism conversation with a pediatrician or parent is a long dialogue, right? And that's rife with-
Richie
Yeah.
Jonathan
-Oh, I'm going to send them off to X University and they're going to sit on a wait list for 24 months. And then what happens once they get diagnosed? I'm a pediatrician. I don't really know where to send them for therapy. And I've heard that there's a lot of challenges within this. Like what am I opening up a parent to? It's really just a little bit of kicking the can down the road, a little bit of disbelief that something like this could be out there and then you overlay just the realities of, know, new technology and practitioners saying, wow, there's gotta be something else.
That's why it's really nice to be able to point to on my side that this has been, you know, developed off of 20 years of research. We have nothing to hide. I love when I'm asked deep questions to do due diligence. We want commercial partners and we want parents and we want every, everybody in the space to understand, you know, just how valuable this is. and at times you're right. I do get faced with these questions like, what am I missing?
One other reality is autism diagnosis is not necessarily profitable for a provider, right? That's just the reality for a pediatrician. So there's no current remuneration for a pediatrician to go ahead and start using EarlyPoint. And there's challenges with remuneration and a limited lack, really a lack of providers in the developmental PEDE and the pediatric neurology space.
There's just a provider bottleneck. So that is another piece. One last piece is, know, child psychologists love administering the ADAS. They really love the floor time with the kiddos. So that's something else we're facing. This is disrupting their world. Anytime there's a revolution like this, you know, there's going to be a lot of challenges in order to get large.
Richie
Yeah.
Jonathan
-large, wide scale adoptance. But that's why it's great to have, you know, forward thinkers like Hannah and others who are customers that are willing to fight the battle with us. Because this really is an objective diagnostic biomarker that could significantly change the space.
Richie
Yeah, I think there has to be changes, right? I mean, at this point, you said it, people are waiting, what would you say Hannah, two, three years to get a diagnostic evaluation. And then they're waiting another however long to actually get access to treatment and to therapy. And so you're missing out on those pivotal years and that's key time for their development, right? So if this is something that moves the marker earlier, and even if it's a net gain of six or eight months, that's significant for child that young.
Hanna
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you... Oh, yeah, no, if you think about the developmental changes between a 6-month-old and a 12-month-old, a 12-month-old and 18-month-old, and then a 24-month-old, that child looks different every single time you see them. We have language bursts at 18 months, right? We have more independent skills at 24 months.
So the growth is exponential. And if we can harness those growth opportunities in treatment, again, that's where you see the optimal outcomes. yeah, childhood is rocking and rolling and we want to catch them at an early age.
Richie
Yeah.
Jonathan
And to just add to that too, if you think about the caregiver engagement, understanding and awareness of diagnosis and their needing to be a complicit, know, participator in their child's development, this is an eye opener. I've seen this used irregardless of socioeconomic class, race, ethnicity, you know, this is truly equitable. And there's something about a picture being worth a thousand words for a parent to see, okay, this is what the eye gaze is missing and what my kiddo is missing. So even if they're just more adamant in getting in the line of gaze through little things in order to help the kid learn in a little bit different manner, it could be an enormous, enormous opportunity for continued gains.
Richie
Jonathan, that was a perfect segue. I want to dive into that. I'm really curious about the eye gaze tracking piece of it and what's on the screen and what are we really looking at? So if you could tell us a little bit about the video content that's there and Hannah, you've seen it as well. So a little bit of what the video is and a bit of what you're looking for in tracking compared to what a neurotypical child would be doing.
Jonathan
Yeah, so they're one minute video clips and they are from a daycare setting. imagine a kiddo handing another kiddo a toy and that child getting upset. Imagine opening or closing of a Fisher Price play car door. What we're capable of doing is we're capable of understanding where receptively, so how receptively that kiddo is accepting this information and where they're looking at that point in time.
And then where do they expressively take that information? I am a layman when it comes to explaining the science. Our founders have, you know, really are the who's who within the world of autism diagnosis and understanding, you know, attention and these little pieces of skills in these social interactions that add up. So the content that was selected was done so with insight into what could we pick up as far as nonverbal learning cues, social disability and whatnot. So the content's incredibly well thought out. It had to go through the FDA. So because we're an FDA breakthrough designated device, we were the first in class. So the level of scrutiny for us to get approval to say, in fact, hey, this works.
To diagnose autism within this age range was incredibly high bar to pass. So that was a piece of the content. And again, the content is kiddos in this age range who are interacting. We currently have indication up to 30 months, but we are actively finishing off our clinical studies that'll actually push the age range up to 96 months with this content. So it'll be 16 months to 96 months for diagnosis. At some point in time in 2026 is our…
Richie
That's amazing. That's a, that's a big difference, right? I mean, I'm thinking about 96 months. That's a, that's a much broader spectrum of ages and a, and a wider range of potential clients to be able to help. I was interested in, in the video content because I, you know, I've heard of similar things in the past and I was just curious, like, what does it look like? But to have, to have somebody watching a video of what a daycare setting might look like and seeing children interact and seeing.
the handoff of toys and the opening of cabinets and some of those other things. think that's there. You're, you're almost seeing how they would watch into their own world. It's not that they're watching TV. It's that they're, they're watching sort of into the world that they are going to be in when they're a little bit older or at the age that they are and seeing what their potential interactions would be, where their attention would be focused.
Jonathan
That's exactly what it's like. And it's really picking up that in comparison to the largest cohort of typically developing children that's been studied within this age range. So that's another thing. We have an enormous data set. The two studies that we have in JAMA are very large. And that's where foundationally built in academic research science manner. So yeah, what you just shared is absolutely the case. There's a lot of intentionality to what we developed and how we developed it.
Hanna
And whenever I'm going through the report with family members, you can see the discrepancy oftentimes. So when it's positive for a diagnostic of autism, I can sit down with the families and talk about where their child was looking as opposed to where a neurotypical individual of the same age range would look. it's-It's pretty striking, right?
Because a lot of folks are looking at the actual social interaction where a lot of kids with autism are looking off to inanimate objects in different areas of the screen. And so again, it's striking, but like I said, the caregivers often have some understanding of what that eye gaze means. And so when you put it out there, I can give them all sorts of scores and talk about, you - statistics and things, but then when they see that how differently their child is behaving in terms of eye gaze, you know, and I said this is actually meaningful because of the research behind it and because it aligns with the gold standard of what a lot of clinicians use to diagnose, it's pretty meaningful to them.
Richie
That's amazing. Yeah, I'm thinking about a family and getting a feedback session as their child is getting a diagnosis and they're saying, here are the scores on this test and here's why that's statistically significant. And it's like, wait a second, I'm just trying to process that something's going on and I've either been right about it or I've been wrong about it and I need to process that. for this to be a little bit more palatable, I want to say, I think it's super beneficial. Hanna, I know you've been, go ahead, Jonathan.
Hanna
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jonathan
And I get most excited when I have a customer like Learn that actually has a diagnostic arm and a treatment arm that are together. Because if you think about that handoff with an engaged caregiver, a lot of these parent-mediated type of tasks and skills are what you want to build in for treatment to start off with that coincide with the other therapy that somebody like Learn can offer.
So it's such a tight transition from diagnosis to pull through therapy so that you're not wasting that window and you're really engaging a caregiver and that engagement of the caregiver is so valuable because they're with the kid way more than any therapist is going to be with the kid. So there's just, it's a tighter ecosystem of understanding, not in every case, but you you got to start somewhere. And I think this is a great place for clinicians that are understanding of the power of that and embrace it to be able to share and open eyes to what this could be.
Richie
Yeah. Hannah, I'm curious. You've done, I won't even try to count how many diagnostic evaluations in your career, right? Both using the software from early tech, early point, and also without that. Can you just walk us through, I'm just curious how you're doing it, how your team is doing it at Learn, sort of the process of a typical diagnostic evaluation using early point from start to finish. From the first time the parent calls to the time you're giving them that feedback of your child has or does not have.
Hanna
Right, so we have a fantastic intake team and the intake team is very aware of what's required for the use of early tech, for example, the age range, right? That's really important. And they know if I'm going to be doing what we consider an expedited diagnostic that we have to have some sort of evidence that there's a real question of autism, right? We have other diagnosticians that do what's called a differential.
know, diagnosis where they still use a lot of the traditional measures that you see. But our intake team is the first team that has contact with the family. They start asking questions, they get some basic information, and then, you know, they get the age range, and then they set them up with an appointment with me. And what is fantastic about the device is that it is mobile. with being in, yeah, so,
Richie
I didn't even think about that.
Hanna
Within a large organization, oftentimes clinicians would have to be in one place because of all of the assessment tools that you need, they're oftentimes housed in a closet and multiple people need to use them. Or you're lugging like 150 pounds worth of, you know, whatever in black suitcases and you look a little odd.
Richie
Yeah.
Hanna
But all this is is a device and a carrying case. And so myself and my team can then visit different offices where again, all we do, we set up some toys, a nice little space for the family to sit. So we can actually get closer, which also speaks to health equity, right? Some of our families are using public transportation. Some families are getting a ride from another family member. So we try to get as close to them as we possibly can, you know, within Massachusetts and where we provide services.
We set up that space, the families come in and we always make it so we can take them right in. So there's no waiting room at all. You just come right in, sit down with us. And we do a little bit of rapport building. We do a little bit of talking. Tell me what you're concerned with. Tell me what you've seen. Tell me what your little one is like. What do they like? What don't they like? know, hearing about some of the trials and tribulations of parenthood and kind of some of the things that they've seen. And if they have other kids, what are some of the similarities and differences?
We get to know the family a little bit. We tell them what's gonna happen. You know, I'm gonna ask them questions. We're gonna watch for a little while. Then we're gonna sit them in front of the device. And again, some kids sit with their family members. Some don't, they're just fine. And again, the parents are often taken with the technology. 15 minutes maybe right there. We sit back, we talk a little bit more while we wait for the report.
And like I said, the report comes through, I reach through it and have an agreement or disagreement, and both have happened. But more often than not, we're in agreement. And so then I tell them exactly what I've seen that meets the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders, which is what we use to provide a diagnosis. I say, these are the behaviors that I've seen that align with a diagnosis. This is what the report from the early tech device is saying, and again, this is what it means if I were to be using all of these other measures that a traditional assessment would mean. And again, when I show them that graphic of where their little one was looking, that's usually where I start off. They're pretty taken with that. So many parents are relieved. It's about an hour and a half. We give you some juice. We give you some cookies. It's some goldfish if you want.
Richie
Some goldfish are gonna happen.
Hanna
So we try to make it as stress, because this is a high stress situation. A lot of times this is a life changing point in a family. So we do try to make it as relaxed, as engaging, as supportive as we possibly can. So it's really about an hour and a half they're in and they're out and they have the knowledge that they need to take the next steps, which I think is really important.
Richie
Yeah, that's amazing. I'm really, I'm really like the thing that sticks out to me the most is the not having to look at a bell curve with all those dots and things on it and being able to like actually see this is where your child was attending and this is where other children are attending. I think that that sticks out to me as not the only takeaway, but that is definitely, I think a high point of.
Hanna
yeah, no, it's fantastic. And as Jonathan was saying, we usually get started with some fun little videos that kids have seen before. The current device I'm using, have Blue's Clues and Bear and Big Blue House and all those things. So there's a lot of kids who are looking and they'll start to laugh or giggle. So it really engages them. it's nothing, again, it's nothing frightening or stressful by any means. Most of the parents know what they're looking at. They're like, yeah.
Most of them are like, is Miss Rachel gonna pop up right here? I was like, no, like this is it. But again, they feel really comfortable because it's really kid friendly. And so we really try to set up the environment. So it's supportive, it's fun, as much as it can be in that context.
Richie
Great. Hannah, real quick, I want to dive into something for just a second. We've talked about health disparity a little bit and access to diagnostic evaluations. How is EarlyPoint supporting that and supporting families who are either, who are speaking a language different than English, for example?
Hanna
Yeah, that's a huge issue. We've seen in a number of empirical studies that there are challenges for families who have English as a second language, who are minorities in terms of race and ethnicity. It is very hard to get a diagnosis. And so with this device, we don't have to worry about biases and we don't have to worry about language.
So I've actually used the device with families who English is either a second language or they don't even speak English. So we have translation services that come in and that help me go through and do the interview component and ask questions. But where we run the risk of biases is when an English speaker tries to test a non-English speaker. And so I've set a child down who does not speak English in front of this device and can be certain that the eye gaze will not provide those same types of biases. And so that really helps me in understanding what I'm seeing and observing and help to minimize the bias that we often see and have a more accurate diagnosis. And again, a lot of these families are also part of a lower socioeconomic level.
They're access to healthcare, to diagnostics. There are often so many barriers. So I do feel like using this device opens up whole other opportunity for practitioners in areas that are serving these communities. And I think it's imperative that we evaluate how we can use it more with these families.
Richie
Yeah, if there's a long wait list for a family trying to get an English speaking traditional diagnostic evaluation, I can't even wrap my head around how long it would take for somebody trying to get it in Spanish and how much and I'm just using that as an example, how much that translator would not change answers intentionally. I'm not saying that, but the information is flowing through another person, which means I don't know. There could be stuff that's lost in that translation at some point.
Jonathan
Yeah, there'll be a lot of, that was to say, there'll be a lot of research that comes out surrounding the variability and biases and subjectivity of the traditional scales as this models out over time, it supports exactly what Hannah shared.
Hanna
Yeah, and the families are very excited too. But you're right, Richie, when we're talking about translation services, I love that we have an opportunity to use those services so we can really connect with the families. But when you're talking in clinical language, sometimes there aren't words that match up. And so if I'm not well versed in what that language is, which I am not, I am monolingual. So it can be very challenging. And I do sometimes get concerned about that information is getting to the family members. So again, just having this device is, it just makes me very excited as a clinician to be able to offer that to families.
Richie
Yeah.
Hanna
We got to do a Portuguese speaking family and she was in tears and I was like, this is the best thing ever. I was like so, and the whole team was excited. We were literally cheering. so yeah, I honestly really do think that, yeah, we need more of these things. I just need to go out in downtown Boston and sit in a bus.
Jonathan
And I'm in Miami, no place more culturally diverse from the Portuguese to the Spanish. And their feedback has been phenomenal from parents' acceptance and understanding. There's something about the picture being worth a thousand words, it just is an eye-opener as it relates to helping them digest all that is this very complicated journey that they've been onto until they find an expert like Hannah to help them decode what's going on.
Hanna
Yeah.
Richie
Yeah, I'm thinking about our team and we've got one person who speaks Spanish and we trained her and helped her through school to get her to the point where she could be on our diagnostic evaluation team. Because before that we had zero and there was no way for us to do it other than through translation services, which are hard to coordinate and add another barrier. And then somebody shows up and then if that person's sick, it pushes things out. And just the number of hoops that families of diverse backgrounds have to jump through is just an ordinate already and then throw in this specialized testing and here they are waiting.
Jonathan
Yeah. Again, the early point doesn't know where it's at. It doesn't know who's administrating it. It just knows the kiddo in front of it. And that kiddo in front of it, it's solely looking at them from the standpoint of where they're paying attention to the world that's presented around them. And that's what makes this such a unique and insightful piece. It doesn't just binary autism or not. Again, it shows the severity of which. So not uncommon that I've heard somebody say, wow.
this kid has incredible non-verbal learning ability, but they're delayed verbally and it's not consistent with autism. Well, that's a great opportunity to put them in speech therapy, right? And to be able to have that directional push to, okay, here's the deficits, how do you deal with them? Is really the next level of where we're going as it relates to kind of the journey for that parent.
Richie
Yeah. Jonathan, where can we find more about early tech diagnostics and the early point device?
Jonathan
Yeah, so on our website at Early Tech, there's a lot of information for providers as well as families. We are going to continually build out socially rich content as it relates to social media. we have had a lot of news articles about us. So we've been on Good Morning America.
Not uncommon that our customers want to market this within the communities that they serve in order to impact and raise awareness within the communities that they serve as a whole. Not uncommon that pediatricians haven't heard of this and not are aware of it. At the AAP, we're going to have a presence coming up as well.
So more and more will be be told. We have a unique opportunity within some states as well where governors or state legislatures have realized that autism and kiddos developmental delay is really a public health issue. Because if you think about it, this is just the initial stage. I can't say it's a really sensitive topic and it's a it is a life changer. So taking advantage of this and offering hope within the 16 to 30 month age range is just such a special place.
And then from there, getting them off to service providers that can help with the lift that is maximizing this kiddo's strengths is what's out there in front of them. those are some of the places that people could look. My contact information is jlayman at earlytechdx.com, readily available to connect and our team is really I'm blessed to be able to commercialize this special, special product out of the Marcus Autism Center. So Marcus will always be a part of our journey and a part of our story. that group is just incredible, you know, spending time with practitioners who want to learn more from the clinical side of things.
Richie
I appreciate that, Jonathan. We'll make sure that all that information gets in the show notes. also just for those listening, I found some of the articles that you referenced on that website. And so if you really want to get nerdy the way I did yesterday, feel free to click on some of those links. But I appreciate you both being here. Thanks for your insight. Thanks for doing what you're doing. I think this is a great way for us to continue to forge ahead and support the community.
Hanna
Thanks so much Richie.
Jonathan
Yeah, thanks. We're grateful again to have partners like Hannah that are helping us change the space and without Learn and other partners within that, this would have no impact. So thanks to you guys for your help.
Richie
Happy to do it.
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