Filling out a quick questionnaire in your pediatrician's waiting room, could help determine if your child has autism.
Researchers say the infant-toddler checklist can help kids who have it, and other development disabilities get on track for treatment much earlier than the norm. And that could make a big difference as they grow.
LINK: CSBS-DP Infant/Toddler Checklist
BACKGROUND: Autism is a disorder diagnosis that is applied to more children than you might think. Autism affects thought, perception, and attention and is much more than a single disorder but rather a defined set of symptoms.
Autistic behavior typically occurs across various situations that are consistently inappropriate for their age. According to the American Psychiatric Association, a diagnosis of autistic disorder is made when an individual displays six or more of the twelve symptoms listed across the major areas of social interaction, communication, and behavior.
Fortunately filling out a quick questionnaire in your pediatrician's waiting room, could help determine if your child has autism. Researchers say this infant-toddler checklist can provide aid to children who have autism and other developmental disabilities, to get on track for treatment earlier than the norm.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The checklist focuses on several key areas like problems in social relatedness and communication, abnormal responses to one or a combination of senses, speech and language absence or delays, and abnormal ways of relating to people, objects, and events.
Knowing how to use language appropriately is a common aspect of language that tends to be disturbed in autistic people. This includes knowing how to carry on a conversation, thinking about what the other person in the conversation understands, and tuning into the linguistic signals of other people such as facial expressions and tone of voice.
For mother Samantha Love, filling out this questionnaire at her son's one year checkup led her to believe her son may be autistic. "I think once I completed the form, I knew," Love states.
GETTING HELP: Although receiving the news that your child is suffering from an autistic disorder is difficult news for any parent to swallow, Love received hope through finding out this news early on.
Love explained, "Half of you is heartbroken because you're thinking okay, something's wrong, and the other half of you is thinking I might get help."
Due to her son's advanced diagnosis, he did get help at Florida State University's Autism Institute. Dr. Morgan has been following this study and believes that earlier treatment could mean better long term socialization for children with autism.
Dr. Morgan states, "More of them will be in general education settings and in jobs living independently."
WHERE THE CHECKLIST IS USED: Currently the infant-toddler checklist is mainly being used by pediatricians in San Diego, California, and Tallahassee, Florida. Dr. Morgan believes that as the word expands about its effectiveness in recognizing autism, it could become more widespread. She urges parents who are taking advantage of it to continue filling it out from nine to twenty-four months old. This is important, Dr. Morgan states, because signs of developmental disorders might not show up until a child is closer to two years old.
For More Information, Contact:
Lindee Morgan
lindee.morgan@med.fsu.edu
(850) 644-4367
