Monitoring of Repetitive Interest and Social-communication.

In England, families can wait more than two years for an autism assessment, and the average age at diagnosis is around 55 months. For children with language delays, missing early support can affect long-term outcomes.

MoRIS is an early-years digital screening and signposting tool designed to close that gap. Parents and carers complete a short, adaptive questionnaire / a webcam-based eye-gaze activity which looks at how a child reacts to social and non-social images. A play-based development tracker adds further context. A speech and language therapist reviews the combined results through a secure clinical portal and confirms a triage score. Every child is then matched to a clear next step: direct referral to speech and language therapy, signposting to local Family Hub services, or online resources and universal support. With parent consent, a summary can also be shared with the child’s nursery or early years setting.

MoRIS has been shaped from the start by the people who will use it. Parent and carer workshops, a professional survey, and testing with families and clinicians have informed its design from how results are explained to where it sits in existing health visitor, GP, and early years pathways.

MoRIS is being developed by ELAROS with the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Paediatrics and Child Health and Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.