Bounty

Autism can be diagnosed in babies by listening to the sounds they make, according to scientists.

Experts using automated vocal analysis noticed differences between the noises made by healthy babies and those found to have autism, with an 86% accuracy rate.

The technique, which involved attaching battery powered recorders to the clothes of 232 children aged between 10 months and four years, also identified children experiencing difficulties with language.

Some three million child sounds were gathered from 1,500 day-long recordings for the study, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Steven Warren, an autism spectrum disorders expert at the University of Kansas, US, who took part in the study, said: "This technology could help paediatricians screen children for ASD (autism spectrum disorder) to determine if a referral to a specialist for a full diagnosis is required and get those children into earlier and more effective treatments."

Autism, which affects about 500,000 people in the UK, is usually associated with a person's inability to communicate and empathise with others, repetitive behaviour, obsessional traits and poor social skills.