12 Questions to Detect Autism

[call me jaded]

From the Independent today:

 

The 12 questions that can detect autism in your child

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor

Published: 01 December 2005

Is your child autistic? The question strikes fear into the hearts of parents but scientists have now developed a screening test for autism which they say could detect the condition.

 

The 12-point questionnaire was more than 90 per cent accurate in identifying children who had been independently diagnosed with autism and could help identify other children with "functional impairment," researchers said.

 

The test could also be used to detect the condition in dysfunctional professors, train-spotters and others with eccentric habits who are popularly thought to share autistic traits.

 

In a trial run of the test at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, the mothers of more than 400 children, half of whom were autistic, filled in the questionnaire, which has a maximum score of 24. The autistic children on average scored 16 to 17, compared with two to three for other children.

 

A third group of children, referred to the hospital's clinic for social and communication disorders but not diagnosed as autistic, scored between 11 and 12.

 

The questionnaire was developed by Professor David Skuse and colleagues at the Institute of Child Health, London, and the findings are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Professor Skuse said there was disagreement among scientists about whether autism was a distinct abnormal condition or one end of the normal spectrum of behaviour. The test could help settle that dispute.

 

Between 60 and 100 children in 10,000 are thought to have autistic spectrum disorder, of whom 20 to 25 are diagnosed with classical autism. The condition normally develops in children before the age of two and leads to severe difficulties in communicating and forming relationships.

 

Professor Skuse said: "Autism probably isn't a separate condition. It is probably on a continuum with normal behaviour. The boundaries are not distinct - it is not a precipice but a gentle slope. If you have enough of these symptoms [identified on the questionnaire] you are likely to have social and educational difficulties that could affect your ability to fit in. You can't draw a line and say people with a score above have autism because it will depend on other factors. But, the higher your score, the more likely you are to have functional impairment."

 

Traits seen in autism were also seen in other conditions, lending support to the theory that the condition is on a continuum with normal behaviour.

 

"A lot of kids with conduct disorder who appear to be just naughty also have problems with language, leaping from subject to subject. We are increasingly recognising that these symptoms are not confined to autism," Professor Skuse said.

 

Current methods of identifying children with autism depend on GPs or health visitors recognising signs of the disorder and referring children for assessment. But many parents believe the condition is under-diagnosed as the assessment is expensive and too few children are referred.

 

"If this screening test were applied across a community of school-age children, we could get a sense of how many had autistic traits. The checklist could be used to establish its prevalence in the population," Professor Skuse said. The incidence of autism in Britain has been rising for more than a decade.

Edited December 1, 2005 by call me jaded

[ceecee]

This is very interesting.Thanks Jaded.Is it saying we should grab all train spotters and whisk them off to be tested and eccentric professors.

Seriously really interesting reading.thanks

[Tylers-mum]

That made an interesting read! Thanks for sharing.

 

Wonder when this new questionnaire will be introduced!

[sue1957]

Having seen the effect of fluoride on my son's behaviour, he could easily have been diagnosed with autism when in fact he is sensitive to something toxic in his environment.

 

I think it is very very scary to think that it could ever come about that autism is assessed by the answers to 12 questions.

 

The whole article makes me very uncomfortable, I'm off to do some trainspotting to relax.

[call me jaded]

It's short - HVs and GPs are more likely to use it as a pre-assessment tool.

It's 90% accurate.

Early diagnosis allows early intervention.

 

Screening the entire school population would be interesting.

[ceecee]

I'll join you then trouble is i know very little about trains.Well I know about Thomas thanks to my son.

[sue1957]

It's short - HVs and GPs are more likely to use it as a pre-assessment tool.

It's 90% accurate.

Early diagnosis allows early intervention.

The only early intervention I was offered for my son was speech therapy. The HV didn't mention environmental stressors, diet, anything else. The thought of her filling in a nice little questionaire to move him on to someone else who knows nothing about environmental stressors, for an autism diagnosis based on his behaviour is what scares me. Maybe we are just one of the 10 percent that it would be inaccurate for.

 

If it was common practice for early interventions (for any difficulties) from the HVs and GPs to include removing environmental stressors (such as fluoride, formaldehyde in toiletries, aspartame etc) then maybe a later diagnosis of autism/adhd/whatever may not be the outcome in a lot of cases.

 

Perhaps it's not so much the questionnaire, its who will be using it, and whether it will become a financial shortcut through the assessment procedures.

[call me jaded]

Long and drawn out medical consultations (we had 30 in the first two years) taught me nothing about my son. It was only when we had a potential label or three that I had something to work with and those came a lot later.

 

It was the dyspraxia label though, not the ASD one, that actually got us started on the interventions that have really made a difference.