# MyChild Engine — Open-Source Developmental Screening

> An open-source screening engine that tracks developmental milestones across 8 domains, from birth to 36 months. Every question is weighted by clinical evidence, every result is traceable to the exact rule that produced it, and nothing ever leaves your device. NOT a diagnostic tool.

- Install: `npm install mychild-engine` — Apache-2.0 (code) / CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)
- GitHub: https://github.com/hsongra11/mychild-app
- Canonical HTML page: https://www.mychildapp.in/

## The problem

The free checklists from the CDC don't score anything. The validated tools like ASQ-3 and M-CHAT-R/F do, but they're copyrighted and expensive. There's nothing in between. MyChild Engine fills that gap — it tracks milestones over time, weights each observation by clinical evidence, and tells you exactly why it flagged something. Not a diagnosis. Just enough signal to know when to talk to your pediatrician.

## Under the hood

- **131 weighted questions** — Each question carries a weight: Low, Medium, High, or Red-Flag. Low-weight items need corroboration before they matter. Red-flags skip the line.
- **8 independent domains** — Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Receptive Language, Expressive Language, Social-Emotional, Cognitive, Self-Help, Vision/Hearing. Each scored on its own.
- **10 age-appropriate bands** — Birth through 36 months, plus universal red flags that apply at any age.
- **False alarm protection** — The engine won't flag "high concern" from a single observation. It requires at least 2 independent data points before escalating.
- **Preterm correction built in** — For children born before 37 weeks, the engine automatically adjusts expectations until 24 months.
- **Show your work** — Every result comes with a plain-English explanation of exactly what drove it.
- **Rule simulator** — Run synthetic child timelines against different threshold configurations and see exactly which alerts shift.

## Validation study (synthetic, not clinical)

Verified against 71,939 synthetic developmental profiles generated by an autoresearch system (inspired by Karpathy's autoresearch):

| Metric | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cohen's Kappa | 0.906 | Combined set; above 0.8 is "almost perfect" in clinical research |
| Sensitivity | 91.4% | Share of real concerns the engine catches |
| Specificity | 98.8% | Share of typically-developing children correctly cleared |
| Profiles tested | 71,939 | Synthetic profiles — not real children |

Two phases: a hand-verified set (1,747 profiles, kappa 1.000 by construction) and an adversarial stress test (70,192 profiles designed to break the engine — kappa 0.852, specificity 98.0%). Ground-truth labels came from an AI clinical evaluator, not licensed clinicians. **This is not clinical validation.**

Full study: https://www.mychildapp.in/study.md · Raw data: https://www.mychildapp.in/study-data.md

## How it compares

| Tool | Sensitivity | Specificity | Validation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASQ-3 | 82–97% | 83–93% | Clinical (~18,000 children) |
| M-CHAT-R/F | 85–95% | 93–99% | Clinical |
| PEDS | 74–79% | 70–80% | Clinical (~1,500 children) |
| MyChild Engine (combined) | 91.4% | 98.8% | **Synthetic only** |

Every other tool has been validated with real children; MyChild Engine hasn't. The comparison is directional, not a claim of equivalence.

## India / RBSK alignment

India has 26 million babies a year. RBSK (Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram), India's national child health screening program, is validated at 97% sensitivity and 96.4% specificity against ASQ-3. MyChild Engine's question bank is mapped domain-by-domain against RBSK screening items — alignment for integration planning, not endorsement or validation. Details: https://www.mychildapp.in/rbsk.md

## What's next

1. Adaptive questioning — stop asking once the engine has enough signal
2. NLP probe analysis — understand free-text parent answers
3. Longitudinal pattern recognition — distinguish late bloomers from persistent delays, catch regression

## Recognition

Built by Harsh Songra and Aafreen Ansari — Forbes 30 Under 30 (India & Asia), TEDx speakers, 500 Startups portfolio, WEF Agenda contributor. Google filmed a documentary about the original MyChild App (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h4wcz2zbWA). Story: https://www.mychildapp.in/about.md

## Quick start

```bash
npm install mychild-engine
```

```js
import { evaluate, computeChildAge, getDueQuestions } from 'mychild-engine';

// Get age-appropriate questions for a 7-month-old
const questions = getDueQuestions({ dob: new Date('2025-09-01') }, []);
// Returns 12 questions across Motor, Language, Cognitive, Social
```

Docs: https://www.mychildapp.in/docs.md · npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/mychild-engine

## FAQ

**Is MyChild Engine clinically validated?**
No. The engine has been verified against 71,939 synthetic developmental profiles (Cohen's kappa 0.906, 91.4% sensitivity, 98.8% specificity), but synthetic profiles are not real children. A prospective clinical study with real patients is the next milestone, and we are actively looking for clinical partners.

**Is MyChild Engine a diagnostic tool?**
No. It tracks developmental milestones and surfaces patterns so caregivers know when to talk to a pediatrician. It cannot and does not diagnose any medical condition, developmental disorder, or disability.

**How much does MyChild Engine cost?**
Nothing. It is fully open source: the code is Apache-2.0 and the question bank and study data are CC BY-SA 4.0. Install it with `npm install mychild-engine`.

**What ages does MyChild Engine cover?**
Birth to 36 months, across 10 age bands, plus universal red flags that apply at any age. For babies born before 37 weeks, the engine automatically uses corrected age until 24 months.

**How is my child's data protected?**
The engine runs entirely locally on your device. No child data is transmitted to any server. This website uses standard analytics for page views only — see https://www.mychildapp.in/privacy.md for details.

**How does the scoring actually work?**
The engine asks 131 evidence-weighted questions across 8 developmental domains. Each question carries a weight class (Low, Medium, High, or Red-Flag) that controls how fast it escalates. Evidence sufficiency gates require at least 2 independent observations before flagging high concern, and every result includes a plain-English explanation of exactly what drove it.

**How is this different from CDC checklists or ASQ-3?**
CDC milestone checklists are free but have no scoring logic. Validated instruments like ASQ-3 and M-CHAT-R/F are scored but copyrighted and expensive. MyChild Engine sits in the gap: free, open source, and scored — though unlike ASQ-3 and M-CHAT-R/F it has not yet been clinically validated.

**What should I do if the engine flags a concern?**
Book an appointment with your pediatrician and bring the engine's explanation trace with you — it shows exactly which observations drove the flag. If your child loses skills they previously had, seek medical advice promptly. For anything urgent, contact your local emergency services.

## Where the questions come from

1. Zubler JM, et al. "Evidence-Informed Milestones for Developmental Surveillance Tools." *Pediatrics*. 2022;149(3). doi:10.1542/peds.2021-052138
2. Lipkin PH, Macias MM. "Promoting Optimal Development…" *Pediatrics*. 2020;145(1). doi:10.1542/peds.2019-3449
3. CDC "Learn the Signs. Act Early." milestone checklists — cdc.gov/act-early/milestones
4. RBSK (Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram) — rbsk.mohfw.gov.in
5. Synthea synthetic data validation — doi:10.1186/s12911-019-0793-0
6. "Synthetic data can aid the analysis of clinical outcomes." *PNAS*. 2024. doi:10.1073/pnas.2414310121

## Important

**This is not a diagnostic tool.** It tracks developmental milestones and surfaces patterns. It cannot and does not diagnose any medical condition, developmental disorder, or disability. If something concerns you about your child's development, talk to your pediatrician. Thresholds are hypothesis-level and have not been validated through clinical trials. The engine runs entirely locally — no child data leaves your machine.

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Pages: [Home](/index.md) · [About](/about.md) · [Study](/study.md) · [Study Data](/study-data.md) · [Docs](/docs.md) · [RBSK](/rbsk.md) · [Privacy](/privacy.md) · [Terms](/terms.md) · [Contact](/contact.md)