After last week in class when Andrew showed us his personal health results along with his son’s, I got to thinking about why some people were afraid to get their own personal results.  I recall Andrew saying some people are unable to emotionally deal with the results and how the government feels not everyone can handle knowing what may be their future health fate.  That class topic got me thinking about serious health diseases we can develop in life and when I did some research, the question popped up of can a babies cry reveal if they will be Autistic?

The definition of Autism is, “A neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and non verbal communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.” Often times someone with autism will display very jerky, abrupt movements, abnormal posture and problems with intentional movements.

According to Live Science, the pitch of a babies cry can provide insight into whether the baby will be autistic or not.  Often times, this is able to be determined as early as six months of age.  In the study, 39 babies were involved.  21 of the babies were from families who had older siblings with autism.  The remaining 18 babies were from healthy families with no background of autism.  A computer aided analysis showed that the babies from unhealthy siblings had higher pitched cries that ranged over a larger variety of pitches, while the babies from the healthy families had lower pitched cries that remained more constant.  The results were only true though when the babies were crying due to pain; for example, when they fell down or bumped their head.

While this study is a good place to start in the discovery of autism, it is important to remember there are many flaws in it.  39 is a very limited study.  The baby count would need to be much greater to provide a more randomized group.  In addition, the number of babies with no autism family history would need to be equal to the number of babies with the autism family history.  In the study above, there are much fewer healthy babies which creates an unequal playing field before the study even begins.  Although Live Science is known as a reputable source for science information, there is a major problem with this study.  The problem is the cries were only detected to have the different pitches when the babies felt pain.  Clearly, you cannot purposefully harm a baby just to monitor its cry.  Due to this, it makes it very difficult to test because the cause of the crying cannot be caused by outside forces.  Often times in studies, the researcher can alter or cause the reaction on what is being tested.  However, in this case,  that cannot be done which makes the studies more time consuming.

According to study researcher Stephen Sheinkopf, the pitch of the babies cries could only be picked up by computers and proper, sophisticated technology.  It is not able to be determined by the simple use of a mother’s ear.  After learning this, many mothers may think it is not worth the time or hassle to get their babies cries listened to.  However, looking back at the study three years later, it was found that the three babies with the highest pitched cries did in fact develop autism.  Could this be a coincidence?  It could be due to third variables such as family history, genetics, or always, just by chance.  Or could the fact that the three babies with the highest pitch cries developing autism be the start of proving this theory?  While we do not know for certain either way, it is important to not take the evidence as proof due to the factors discussed earlier, but also to not disregard the study either for it could be beneficial as more research is done over the years.

Looking further into the topic and for even more reliable resources, I found an article done by TIME.  TIME did an article analyzing babies crying pitches as well and found very similar results to Live Science.  According to TIME, “The findings are intriguing enough to warrant a follow – up, particularly since it’s so difficult to find indicators of autism in very young children.”  The reason this can potentially be so crucial is usually autism cannot be spotted in children until around the age of two or three because that is when the child begins to walk and talk and social deficits can be spotted more easily.  So, the pitch of a babies cry is the leading predictor in a child without having to wait two or three years.

So, what caused researchers to look at crying pitch in the first place?  According to autism specialists, often times children and adults with autism will often make more sing-songy, upbeat noises compared to their peers.  This got researchers wondering if these same higher pitched noises could be detected when the child is first born from birth to six months of age.

In conclusion, there is no proof that babies high pitched cries can lead to autism.  However, it definitely is not a blind shot that the two are connected.  While multiple researchers have reminded parents that you cannot detect pitches with the human ear, perhaps being extra precaucious especially if autism runs in the family wouldn’t be the worst idea.  Andrew always says that it is important to look at the benefits versus the cost of doing the action.  So, if autism runs in the family, it may be worth that time to get your baby checked out just to be safe.

Work Cited:

http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/28/can-a-babys-cry-be-a-clue-to-autism/

http://www.livescience.com/25116-autism-babies-cries.html

https://news.brown.edu/articles/2013/07/crybaby