Detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children Using
Detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children Using
in Children Using
Machine Learning Techniques
Md. Abdullah
20CSE049
Abstract:
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental condition that affects how people interact and
communicate. It can be caused by genetic or environmental factors and impacts various aspects of a
person's life, including their cognitive, social, emotional, and physical well-being. Symptoms of ASD can
vary widely and may include difficulties in social communication, repetitive behaviors, and intense
interests. Diagnosing ASD is a complex process that involves comprehensive assessments by
psychologists and certified professionals, especially in children. Traditional diagnostic methods like the
Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Revised
(ADOS-R) are time-consuming and demanding.
ASD is prevalent among pediatric populations, but diagnosing it early is challenging due to the
subjective
and time-consuming nature of current diagnostic procedures. This leads to a waiting period of at least
13 months from initial suspicion to confirmed diagnosis. The lengthy diagnostic process contributes to a
mismatch between the high demand for appointments and the limited capacity of pediatric clinics.
Review of Literature:
Data Preprocessing:
The dataset compiled by Dr. Fadi Thabtah comprises 1054 instances with 18
attributes, including categorical, continuous, and binary types. Preprocessing
was conducted to enhance the data's suitability for modeling by eliminating
non-contributing attributes ('Case_No', 'Who completed the test', and 'Qchat-
10-Score’). Categorical values were managed through label encoding,
converting labels into numeric format for machine comprehension. This
approach was applied to four features with two classes each ('Sex’, 'Jaundice',
'Family_mem_with_ASD', and 'Class/ASD_Traits'). For features with more than
two classes, such as 'Ethnicity' with 11 classes, one-hot encoding was utilized
to avoid introducing unintended hierarchical order.
Classification Algorithms:
The dataset is divided into a training set (80% of the data) used for model
training and a test set (20% of the data) for evaluating the model's accuracy
on new data. This separation helps identify overfitting or underfitting.
Overfitting occurs when a model performs well on training data but poorly on
testing data. Underfitting is when a model performs poorly on both training
and testing data. An ideal model neither overfits nor underfits, striking a
balance between the two.
Dataset Analysis:
Table 2 Features mapping with Q-CHAT-10 screening method:
Normally, in most predictive models, the data points lie in the following four categories:
1.
True positive (TP): The individual has ASD and we predicted correctly that the individual has ASD.
2.
True negative (TN): The individual does not have ASD and we predicted correctly that the individual
does
not have ASD.
3.
False positive (FP): The individual does not have ASD, but we predicted incorrectly that the individual
has ASD. This is known as Type 1 error.
4.
False negative (FN): The individual has ASD, but we predicted incorrectly that the individual does not
have ASD. This is known as Type 2 error
Table 3 Confusion matrix for ASD prediction:
Precision determines how accurate our positive predictions were, i.e., out of all
the points predicted to be positive how many of them were actually positive
Precision =TPTP +FP.Precision =TPTP+FP.
Recall measures what fraction of the positives our model deteceted, i.e., out of
the points that are labeled positive, how many of them were accurately
predicted as positive. Recall is the same as sensitivity
Recall=TPTP+FN
Accuracy is called the probability of the number of correct predictions made by
the classifier. Otherwise,
it is the fraction of correct predictions made out of the total number of
predictions
Accuracy=TP+TNTP+FP+TN+FN
Conclusion:
1. Al Banna MH, Ghosh T, Taher KA, Kaiser MS, Mahmud M. A monitoring system
for patients of autism spectrum disorder using artificial intelligence. In:
International conference on brain informatics. Cham: Springer; 2020. pp. 251–
6
2. Baron-Cohen S, Allen J, Gillberg C. Can autism be detected at 18 months?
The needle, the haystack, and the CHAT. Br J Psychiatry. 1992;161:839–43.
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