Enlisting Parents in the Race
to Detect Autism Early Enough to Make a Difference
(Some information taken
from the New York Times and from First Signs.)
Who better to spot autism than parents? Subtle changes in behavior may be
more obvious to a mother or father who sees a child daily than to a
pediatrician who has 50 other patients.
So experts want parents to play a larger role. They have taken a widely
used screening tool, the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, or the CHAT,
and replaced a section that pediatricians complete with a series of
yes-or-no questions for parents. It can be filled out in just a few
minutes, ideally at home or in a waiting room before a child's checkup. It
is available at
http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/m-chat.PDF.
Unlike its earlier version, which is extremely precise, the new M-CHAT
casts a wide net. In England, studies of thousands of children showed that
the CHAT, although it accurately identified many cases of autism, was so
specific that it failed to detect a majority of cases. The M-CHAT, with
looser boundaries and greater sensitivity, is intended to flag even subtle
cases. Experts say that it will probably produce more false positives -
flagging children who are not actually autistic - but that they prefer to
err on the side of caution.
