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The Science of Screeners for ASD

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Screening for autism is meant to cast a broad net to gather those who show enough features to be included for a full diagnostic evaluation. The most common of these tools is the MCHAT – the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers. An author of the MCHAT, Diana Robins, and a colleague, Andrea Wieckowski and others gathered over 50 studies (English and other languages) in different types of samples (high likelihood and low likelihood) to determine how the MCHAT was doing in terms of finding infants with autism as well as excluding those without autism. It also touched on how well primary care doctors were doing in administering this tool. If you want to see the MCHAT for yourself or take it for your child, there is a FREE website, click here: https://mchatscreen.com

To read the paper, click here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36804771/

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Better ways of subgrouping ASD?

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On this week’s podcast, two new studies which explore the concept of subgroups of ASD are described. First, a “genetics-first” approach. Dr. Samuel Chawner at Cardiff University compares autism symptoms in those with copy number variants to those with no known genetic cause and asks: how similar to each other are they and can genetics be a way to subgroup? Second, the UC Davis MIND Institute explores the specificity of a subgroup of ASD based on presence of autoantibodies in mothers. Should there be a mix of the two and how do families interpret these findings? Listen here:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33384013/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33483694/