title: Questionnaire screening for comorbid pervasive developmental disorders in congenitally blind children: a pilot study.
abstract: Teachers and parents completed the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) on a clinical sample of 17 congenitally blind children. Of the 17 children, 4 had a definite or likely pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) as judged by independent case note review. The ABC was administered both in its original format and in a slightly modified format. Only teacher-completed ABCs detected group differences and had satisfactory test-retest reliability. The modified-format ABC completed by teachers detected 3 of the 4 children with PDDs without any false positives. Screening questionnaires may have a limited but useful role in locating subjects with blindness plus putative PDDs for further study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London, England.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Minne
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001766:Blindness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior