Doctors MayBe Missing Signs of Autism in Well-Child Visits

 The 10 to 20 minutes of a typical well-child visit isn’t enough time to reliably detect a young child’s risk of autism, a new study suggests.

“When decisions about autism referral are made based on brief observations alone, there is a substantial risk that even experts may miss a large percentage of children who need a referral for further evaluation,” said lead study author Terisa Gabrielsen. She conducted the study while at the University of Utah but is now an assistant professor in the department of counseling, psychology and special education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Checklist Can Help Diagnose Autism Earlier

A single piece of paper is helping diagnose kids with autism and other developmental disorders at a much earlier age.
Filling out a quick questionnaire in your pediatrician's waiting room, could help determine if your child has autism.
Researchers say the infant-toddler checklist can help kids who have it, and other development disabilities get on track for treatment much earlier than the norm. And that could make a big difference as they grow.

Study: Easy Survey Can Detect Autism Early

Call it mother's intuition. Linda Powell's only son Samuel was just two months old when she said she knew something was wrong.
"I had a colorful mobile over the changing area and he didn't focus on it at all," Powell said. "Usually by that time they're able to see some colors. I even switched to a mobile with all these different vibrant colors, and he still didn't focus."
That wasn't the only red flag. Samuel made long humming sounds instead of the "da's" and "ga's" of babbling babies his age. And although he liked toys, he didn't play like his curious peers.
Despite the warning signs, it would be three years before Samuel's unusual behavior had a name: Autism.

A Child Regresses. Is Autism to Blame?

From the Consults Blog at The New York Times, Dr. Fred Volkmar answers a reader's question on autism.

If a young child suddenly stops speaking, is autism to blame? That is among the questions recently posed by readers of the Consults blog. Here, Dr. Fred Volkmar, director of the Yale Child Study Center, explores the issue of regression in children and the diagnosis of autism.