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lena

LENA recorder IDs autism with 86 percent accuracy

In late 2009, we wrote about the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system, which identifies autism in children as young as 18 months by labeling vocalizations from recordings and generating automatic acoustic analysis of those sounds.

At the time, LENA claimed its system was 91 percent accurate. Now, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that number has dropped slightly to 86 percent.

The researchers analyzed more than 3 million child utterances from 1,486 all-day recordings of 232 children. Of the 12 acoustic parameters analyzed for vocal development, syllabification (producing well-formed syllables … Read more

Can autism really be detected by voice alone?

The Lena Foundation, whose new autism-screening tool hit the market in September, claims that parents who use the Lena System are now able to determine with 91 percent accuracy whether their child is developing normally, has autism, or has unassociated language delays.

The home kit, which includes a digital audio recorder, an outfit to hold the recorder, and a questionnaire about the child's development thus far, costs $699. (The one-time language and autism screen, on the other hand, is $200.) The foundation, which develops technology for the screening of several types of language delays and disorders, says the kit … Read more