Identifying Autism with a Brief and Low-Cost Screening Instrument-OERA: Construct Validity, Invariance Testing, and Agreement Between Judges.

The team built a five-item screen called OERA. It flags autism in kids aged three to ten.

Any adult can learn the items in minutes. No PhD in autism is needed.

OERA caught 93 % of kids who truly had ASD. It also correctly cleared 91 % of kids who did not.

The tool stayed sharp across boys and girls, Spanish and English speakers, and kids with or without ID.

Hedley et al. (2010) tested the Spanish ADEC-SP on Mexican toddlers. It reached similar hit rates, but only for ages 19-36 months. OERA stretches the same idea up to age ten.

Seung et al. (2015) showed the Korean M-CHAT-2 needs a follow-up phone call to avoid false alarms. OERA skips parent questions entirely; the adult just watches for five behaviors.

Nadwodny et al. (2025) found LENA audio counts correlate modestly with language tests. OERA trades audio gear for a clipboard and still keeps strong numbers.

These papers do not clash. They simply show brief tools can work when you match the method to the setting.

You can tape the five OERA items to your clipboard. During free play, tick the boxes. In two minutes you have a red-yellow-green signal for referral. No extra staff, no cost, no Spanish-English barrier. Perfect for busy preschool classrooms, head-start centers, or rural clinics where long questionnaires sit unfinished.