Disturbi dello Spettro Autistico: strumenti di individuazione precoce
Silvia Stefanini, Arianna Bello, Sonia Boria, Elena Pattini, Marta Godio, Vania Veroni
In this article, we summarise current knowledge on early signs of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and provide a comprehensive review of the main tools currently available and utilised for the screening of children at risk by 3 years of age. The following detection tools are described: CHAT, M-CHAT, Q-CHAT, PDDST-II, STAT, ITC, ESAT, FYI, BISCUIT, CESDD and SACS. The main findings of studies which have applied these instruments are then reported. The tools are compared on the basis of several critical aspects: target population (developmental disorders or ASDs), characteristics (low and high risk), and size of normative samples, administration methods (e.g. direct or indirect observation) and screening properties (sensitivity and specificity). Finally some suggestions are made for a screening design implementation and a diagram for choosing the most suitable detection tool according to the objectives of a future project.
