"Some kids start walking at 6 months while others start at 18 months, and that's all typical," says Michele Lobo, a physical therapist at the University of Delaware who's working with a tech company to develop a baby monitor that could help detect developmental delays.
"Those early years are crucial to child development, and early intervention in cases of developmental delays can make a huge difference in outcomes," she tells the News Journal.
"If we identify a developmental delay at age 2, providing children double the intervention does not bring those opportunities back....
It's not to say intervention isn't helpful, but the earlier we identify delays and provide intervention, the better for the child."
With a $385,000 NIH Small Business Innovation Research grant from Benten Technologies, Lobo and her team are developing an attachment to a mobile device or baby monitor that uses computer vision and natural language processing to pick up on a child's movement, eye movement, and speech patterns.
Once the data is entered into a national database, the monitor's app will alert parents when a child's movement, eye movement, or speech is not matching up with what's on their baby's screen.
Parents will then be alerted to follow up with their child's doctor,
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