Autism? Ask parents to film child's behavior?

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Autism? Ask parents to film their child's behavior for a diagnosis?

Possible Autism / Asperger's ? - Ask parents to film their child's behavior for a diagnosis?

Question

Can modern technology - camera phones - help a little today in the diagnosis of
neurological challenges? Can parents be asked to film their child's behavior (for five minutes say) as part of a diagnostic process / for a diagnosis? Your view? Can symptoms show up on camera phone movies?

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Traditional approaches

Short written summary of behavior

Verbal interviews with parents / child

and so on.

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Sure. Why not?

Wouldn't their behavior be more noticeable in a doctor's office? It's an unfamiliar environment. Could be crowded. Lots of noises. I actually almost always get to the brink of a meltdown in there.

Lots of autistic people do better in a doctor's office than at home because it's often much quieter, only one person, highly structured, etc. Not everyone but a lot of people. One book I read says that for instance while some autistic people behave worse at school than at home, most behave worse at home than at school.

(Just edited to fix iPod autocorrect jumble)

I stim more at home.

I make less effort at eye contact at home.

I zone out more at home.

I think video footage can aid in a diagnosis because a child might only act a certain way under certain circumstances which can't be replicated in a doctor's office.

my step-son tends to be much better behaved at the doctors office. i think because he is shy and it's scary for him he just sits quietly and sometimes he rocks. it took forever to get him a diagnosis because they would look at him and tell me he seems normal, he's not doing anything too out of the ordinary and send us home, where he would immediately go into meltdown mode. his symptoms only finally reared their head in front of a professional when the doctor was running about 4 hours behind schedule so he had lots of time to get comfortable and start acting like himself while we were there. the doctor spent about 5 minutes with us and said, "Well, the child is clearly disturbed." from other parents i've talked to their kids tend to act similarly, being all quiet and well behaved at appointments and then spaz as soon as they walk in the door. it must be hard for them to hold it in all that time cause you sure do pay for afterwards.
so anyways, i'd have to say that making a video tape of the behavior is probably a good idea if it's possible because it is the next best thing to being able to observe the behaviours in person for the people who are trying to assess them.

I think you would have to film your child over a longer period of time than a day to really get results (and it must be done without the child knowing). I would try and film the child in various settings and not just at home (school, public outings, etc) if at all possible. The more video you have, the better to determine a proper diagnosis.