Funding outcome

Understanding the early development of children who are later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is important for early diagnosis and referral to intervention programs. Abnormal social-emotional behaviours have been identified as a potential early predictor of ASD. This study will examine whether scores on a parent- reported questionnaire, the 'Brief Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA), can predict diagnosis of ASD in a high-risk sibling population. Two groups of families were recruited to assess the efficacy of the BITSEA in identifying ASD in Toddlers: (1) families without a history of ASD (low risk) and (2) families with at least one child diagnosed with ASD (high-risk). Parents completed the BITSEA when the child was 18 months of age, and the children were assessed for ASD at age 3 years. Scores on the BITSEA for high-risk children who were diagnosed within ASD at 3 years will be compared to the scores of children from the low-risk and high-risk groups who were not diagnosed. This will allow us to determine if BITSEA scores at 18 months can predict ASD outcomes at age 3. It is expected that parents of children who are diagnosed with ASD will identify greater social-emotional abnormalities at 18 months of age compared to parents of children who were not diagnosed with ASD. These findings have the potential to assist clinicians in identifying children with suspected ASD at an earlier age than in current practice.