Standardized Autism Screening During Pediatric Well Visits Identified More Children With High Likelihood For Autism Diagnosis

Pediatric practices trained to use a standardized autism screening tool, the M-CHAT-R/F during well-child visits identified more children with a high likelihood of autism than other practices that used their usual screening procedures. Of all visits during the evaluation period, practices using the standardized tool referred 6.2% of children seen (186 children); their average age was 20.6 months. Practices using usual care practices referred 1.2% (39 children); their average age was 23.6 months.

At the time of the evaluation, the children referred by the practices using the standardized tool tended to have . . .