Early diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) is crucial so that early intervention services, which have been found to best alleviate symptoms of ASD in children, can be implemented. Currently, the "Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers" ("M-CHAT") and the "Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm…

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are well-known for engagement in challenging behaviors. Unfortunately, due to its absence as a criterion for diagnosis in the "DSM-IV-TR", little attention has been paid to the endorsement rates of such behaviors. However, a recently developed measure to assist in the diagnosis of infants and toddlers…

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a topic receiving great attention from researchers and clinicians in the field. However, many of these studies focus on children or adults, with research on infants and toddlers evincing ASD being virtually non-existent. Even more scant is information pertaining to the assessment of symptoms of comorbid…

The benefits of early intervention for very young children with autism are now well established. Hand and hand with these interventions is the necessity of psychometrically sound diagnostic tools. Not only should these tools be instrumental in differentiating developmentally delayed and other at risk infants. These measures should also be…

There has been an exponential growth in assessment methods to diagnose disorders on the autism spectrum. Many reasons for this trend exist and include advancing knowledge on how to make a diagnosis, the heterogeneity of the spectrum, the realization that different methods may be needed based on age and intellectual disability. Other factors…

The purpose of this study was to investigate symptoms of comorbid disorders in infants and toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Research is scant on symptoms of co-occurring mental health conditions in this very young population. Method: Three hundred and twenty four participants were included in this study. Participants were classified…

Early identification of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is now considered best practice in the field of developmental disabilities. Despite calls by national pediatric organizations and others for routine screening in young children, such recommendations have been hard to implement in practice. One of the major unresolved problems is the need for…

Researchers and clinicians now recognize that adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) evince the full range of mental health concerns. Only recently, however, have attempts been made to develop evidence-based diagnostic and screening methods to identify these problems. Given that the way these people display symptoms of psychopathology may…

Behavioral symptoms of comorbid psychopathology of 651 children 17-37 months of age who were at risk for developmental disabilities were studied using the BISCUIT-Part 2. In Study 1, norms and cutoff scores were established for this new scale on this sample. In Study 2, frequency of response on the 52 items measured was reported. Problems in…

A study involving 570 individuals with mental retardation developed the Screening Tool of Feeding Problems, an assessment designed to identify feeding problems presented by persons with mental retardation, and thus facilitate the process of identifying who would benefit from some type of behavioral or medical intervention. Psychometric data are…