Screening for autism in infants and preschool children with developmental delay.
This study aimed to identify emotional and behavioural problems specific to young children with autism using the Developmental Behaviour Checklist (DBC-P) and thus evaluate the efficacy of this checklist as a screening tool for autism in children with developmental delay aged 18-48 months. Subjects were 60 children with autism and developmental delay and 60 children with developmental delay without autism. Features were identified which differentiated the children with autism from those with developmental delay without autism. Analyses revealed that a 17-item version of the DBC-P performed well as a screening tool for autism, with an 'area under the curve' of 0.874, sensitivity of 0.8750, and specificity of 0.6909. The DBC-P offers a potential simple and inexpensive method of screening at risk populations of preschool children with developmental delay for autism, thus facilitating timely referral to scarce specialist autism diagnostic services.