Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia finds weaknesses in the first universal screening for autism

The results of a real-world study of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers with Follow-Up (M-CHAT/F) for autism identified several areas that need to be considered when this tool is used. It did correctly identify 40% of toddlers who were later diagnosed with autism about seven months earlier than other, which is very helpful for early intervention. However, many more who were diagnosed later were missed on the early screening, indicating that healthcare providers need to remain vigilant as they see children who may not have shown any symptoms in earlier screenings. In this study almost 26,000 children were reviewed via electronic health records and were systematically followed through ages 4 to eight.

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