Screening for autism spectrum disorder with the Early Childhood Inventory-4.
OBJECTIVE
The early identification of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is critical for the remediation of developmental deficits. This study examined the clinical utility of ASD scoring algorithms for the Early Childhood Inventory-4 (ECI-4), a DSM-IV-referenced rating scale, as a practical solution for screening 3- to 5-year-old children for ASD in medical and public school settings.


METHODS
Parents/teachers completed the ECI-4 for 3- to 5-year-old clinic referrals with an ASD (n = 196) or non-ASD psychiatric (n = 135) diagnosis. Children attending early childhood (i.e., day care, preschool, Head Start) programs were also rated by their parents (n = 507) and teachers (n = 407).


RESULTS
Stepwise logistic regression was used to generate ASD scoring algorithms for the ECI-4. Receiver operating characteristic analyses generally indicated high levels of sensitivity/specificity for recommended ASD cutoff scores for parent (clinic: 0.96/0.80; preschool: 0.92/0.96) and teacher (clinic: 0.81/0.79; preschool: 0.97/0.92) ratings.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings indicate that the ECI-4 shows promise as a clinically useful screening measure for ASD in clinic-referred and preschool children.
DeVincent
Carla
C
Department of Pediatrics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-8788, USA. carla.devincent@sunysb.edu
Gadow
Kenneth D
KD
Strong
Greg
G
Schwartz
Joseph
J
Cuva
Simone
S
D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D015588:Observer Variation; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires