CISLL Publications
Accessible autism screening in children: a pilot study of markerless gait analysis from ordinary walking videos
Author ORCID Identifier
Ziteng Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7763-8959
Sinan Onal http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0342-9251
Prashanna Pandit http://orcid.org/0009-0002-6467-3928
Allison Gladfelter http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2573-2035
Milijana Buac http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4087-8833
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
International Journal of Developmental Disabilities
Abstract
Objectives: Formal autism diagnosis typically follows initial concern by more than two years, and current screening tools rely on subjective caregiver reports. Motor differences in walking gait are well documented but not used in standard screening. This pilot study examined whether gait features from 2D walking videos could distinguish autistic from non-autistic children.
Methods: Using OpenPose, a 2D pose estimation system, we analyzed front- and side-view walking videos of 72 children aged 3–12 years (30 autistic, 42 non-autistic). From joint coordinates, 163 biomechanical gait features were computed and reduced to eight via random-forestbased selection. Three classifiers were compared: logistic regression, random forest, and support vector machine (SVM).
Results: On a stratified held-out test set, the SVM achieved the strongest performance (AUC ¼ 0.935; accuracy ¼ 0.810; sensitivity ¼ 0.889; specificity ¼ 0.750), a profile consistent with screening use. Random forest reached moderate performance but paired high specificity with low sensitivity, while logistic regression performed least effectively, suggesting linear models capture this signal poorly.
Conclusions: These pilot findings support the feasibility of 2D video-based gait analysis as an accessible, objective complement to existing autism screening, though validation in larger, more diverse samples is needed before any clinical application.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/20473869.2026.2737775
Publication Date
9-29-2026
Department
Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literature| School of Clinical and Developmental Sciences (CDS)
Special Interest Group
Diversity and Language Processing, Learning Within the Disciplines and Across the Lifespan
Recommended Citation
Wang, Ziteng; Onal, Sinan; Pandit, Prashanna; Gladfelter, Allison; and Buac, Milijana, "Accessible autism screening in children: a pilot study of markerless gait analysis from ordinary walking videos" (2026). CISLL Publications. 24.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/ctrcisll-publications/24
Sponsorship
The research reported in this paper was supported by AIMAHEAD Coordinating Center at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. This research was, in part, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Agreement No. 1OT2OD032581. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the NIH. This research was also supported by Illinois Innovation Network, Northern Illinois University Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Literacy, Northern Illinois University College of Health and Human Sciences and College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, Northern Illinois University Foundation, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
