A widely used test for autism misses some children with delays in motor, social and communication skills — suggesting that improvements to this test and others may help clinicians pick up on these signs. The findings appear today in Pediatrics1.
The test, called the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) has been shown to miss nearly 70 percent of children with autism at 18 months.
“Some of the screeners that are currently on the market were designed many years ago, when we didn’t have as much understanding of what early autism looks like,” says lead investigator Katarzyna Chawarska, professor of pediatrics at the Yale Child Study Center.
