Eighteen-month-olds who pass screening for autism spectrum disorder may later be diagnosed with ASD.

 

CLINICAL FEATURES OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM WHO PASSED 18-MONTH SCREENING

by Roald A. Oien, MA, et al.

Pediatrics, vol. 141 nu. 6, June 2018, article 23
This is a good article showing that screening for autism at 18 months may miss diagnosing some patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). When the behaviorists lumped Aspergers Syndrome under ASD many clinicians realized many things would occur:

1. The number of patients diagnosed with ASD would increase.
2. The problem with early diagnosis would increase.
3. Most importantly, since the long-term outcome is so different between Autism and Aspergers Syndrome patients, parents apply the prognosis of autism to the asperger patient and suffer a bleak future unnecessarily.

 

I will admit, the line between the very high functioning autistic patient and the Asperger Syndrome patient is very fine. But we shouldn’t be surprised at the results of the above study.