Screening for autism in young children with developmental delay: an evaluation of the developmental behaviour checklist: early screen.
The five-item DBC-ES spots most autism cases in toddlers with delays, so treat it as a first-stage gate, not a final answer.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested a five-question parent form called the DBC-ES. They gave it to caregivers of toddlers and preschoolers who already had developmental delays. Then they checked if the form’s score matched later autism diagnoses.
What they found
The short checklist was reliable and caught almost every child who truly had autism. It also flagged many children who did not have autism, so over-referral was common.
How this fits with other research
Nah et al. (2019) later built another five-item toddler screen and reached 78 % specificity, beating the DBC-ES rate.
Guiyoung et al. (2019, 2021) added a brief play observation and pushed specificity above 80 % while keeping high sensitivity.
Jones et al. (2007) saw the same pattern with the SCQ in the same age group: great at catching autism, weaker at ruling it out.
Why it matters
Use the DBC-ES when you need a fast first pass in busy clinics or waiting rooms. Expect extra referrals and plan a second step, such as a play-based tool or specialist visit, to cut false positives.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The ability to identify children who require specialist assessment for the possibility of autism at as early an age as possible has become a growing area of research. A number of measures have been developed as potential screening tools for autism. The reliability and validity of one of these measures for screening for autism in young children with developmental problems was evaluated. The parents of 207 children aged 20-51 months completed the Developmental Checklist-Early Screen (DBC-ES), prior to their child undergoing assessment. Good interrater agreement and internal consistency was found, along with significant correlations with a clinician completed measure of autism symptomatology. High sensitivity was found, with lower specificity for the originally proposed 17-item screening tool and a five-item version.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2008 · doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0473-2