Israeli Dad Shows How Newborns Can be Screened for Autism

After Raphael Rembrand’s 4-year-old son was diagnosed too late, he created a new autism screening process that can be done on newborns, reports Israel21c.

One Israeli father is on a mission to make sure children with autism, like his son, get diagnosed early. This is the only way they’ll receive critical intervention therapies. After Raphael Rembrand’s 4-year-old son was diagnosed too late, he created a new autism screening process that can be done on newborns, reports Israel21c.

The SensPD diagnostic process, now ready for clinical trials, uses the same instrument currently used in newborn nurseries and well-baby clinics to test infants’ hearing by measuring otoacoustic emissions (OAE). Rembrand’s novelty is using OAE measurement as an indicator of the baby’s overall sensory perception.

“One of the major characteristics of everyone on the autism spectrum is sensory overload,” Rembrand explains. Lacking the ability to filter and concentrate all the sensory data reaching their brains, they are left with a sense of “a huge party inside their heads.”...

“We did preliminary studies on people with and without autism to prove efficacy and accuracy,” says Rembrand. “Now we need to start multisite clinical studies. We have enlisted three hospitals in the US and three in Israel, and we’re now starting a funding round.”

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After Raphael Rembrand’s 4-year-old son was diagnosed too late, he created a new autism screening process that can be done on newborns, reports Israel21c.