Screening for infants with developmental deficits and/or autism: a Swedish pilot study.
The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument (SEEK) for the early detection of developmental deficits and/or autistic spectrum disorders among children by the age of 8 months at eight child health care centers in southern Sweden. Health visitors, trained by the research team, screened 312 infants. SEEK captured 5 infants with several points. Twenty-one percent of the infants obtained at least one SEEK point. At the 18-month follow-up, 5 children still showed more obvious signs of developmental problems. The health visitors found SEEK to be very satisfactory and easy and quick to use and its items and questions to be easy to administer. The results have indicated a new systematic methodology to examine infants, which is to be further developed.
Persson
Bengt
B
Department of Nursing, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. bengt.persson@ltkronoberg.se
Nordstrom
Berit
B
Petersson
Kerstin
K
Månsson
Marie Edwinson
ME
Sivberg
Bengt
B
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000451:nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015995:Prevalence; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013548:Sweden