Screening for autism in infants and preschool children with developmental delay

Objective: 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. Method: Subjects were 60 children with autism and developmental delay and 60 children with developmental delay without autism. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.