International Meeting for Autism Research (London, May 15-17, 2008): Screening for Autism Spectrum Disoroders (ASD) in Flemish Day-care Centres with the Checklist for Early Signs of Developmental Disorders (CESDD)

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Champagne Terrace/Bordeaux (Novotel London West)

11:30 AM

H. Roeyers , Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

M. Dereu , Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

R. Raymaekers , Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

M. Meirsschaut , Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

G. Pattyn , Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

I. Schietecatte , Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

P. Warreyn , Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Background: Screening instruments for ASD usually rely on parents or health practitioners as informants. However, parents often lack sufficient knowledge of normal development to judge their child’s behaviour and health practitioners must base their evaluation on a brief observation. Child care workers though have a good knowledge of children’s development and have sufficient opportunities to observe their behaviour.

Objectives: To develop a screening instrument that can be used by child care workers in day-care centres.

Methods: Child care workers in day-care centres across Flanders received a 3-hour training. They filled out the 29-item CESDD for all children in their centre (N = 5411; mean age 17.41 months, range 3 to 36 months; M:F 1:1). Children who showed some signs of ASD or language delay were invited for a second-stage screening.

Results: Based on a preliminary cut-off score of at least 2 signs of ASD ticked on the questionnaire, the CESDD has a sensitivity of .83 and a specificity of .93. The CESDD has a good internal consistency: Cronbach’s alpha is 0.70 for children younger than 12 months, 0.86 for children between 12 and 24 months and 0.89 for children older than 24 months.

Conclusions: Screening for ASD in day-care centres with the CESDD seems very promising to promote early detection of ASD in a general population sample, which is important for clinical and scientific reasons.

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