New research from Drexel University's A.J. Drexel Autism Institute found that the use of standardized autism screening during pediatric well-child visits identifies more children with high autism likelihood at a younger age, including those presenting with more subtle symptoms.
This is the first large-scale, randomized trial to test the impact of standardized autism screening on early detection of autism in pediatric primary care. Recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychology , the multi-site study tested whether using standardized autism toddler screening—the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised, with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F) —during pediatric well-child visits would result in a higher number of children receiving an autism diagnosis at a younger age compared to usual care. Usual care is generally a combination of screening that is not standardized, or low fidelity (meaning that clinicians did not use the screening tool as it was intended) and clinical judgment to determine whether to refer a child for diagnostic evaluation and early intervention .
In the study, 31 pediatric practices across three sites near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Storrs, Connecticut; and Sacramento, California were randomly assigned to an experimental condition involving training and supervision in the universal, standardized, high-fidelity use of M-CHAT-R/F, or to usual care. Pediatric practices in both groups referred toddlers who showed si.