Screening for autism spectrum disorders in Flemish day-care centres with the checklist for early signs of developmental disorders.

Researchers developed the Checklist for Early Signs of Developmental Disorders (CESDD), a new ASD screening tool designed to be completed by child care workers rather than parents. They tested it across Flemish day-care centres on a population of 6,808 children between 3 and 39 months of age.

Day-care staff filled out the checklist for each child, marking observable signs such as poor eye contact or lack of response to name. The study evaluated how well those ratings predicted actual ASD diagnoses — a measure known as predictive validity.

The CESDD showed a sensitivity of .80 and a specificity of .94. In plain terms, it correctly identified 80% of children who did have ASD and correctly cleared 94% of children who did not.

Based on the screening procedure used in this study, 41 of the 6,808 children screened were diagnosed with ASD or received a working diagnosis of ASD. Those numbers confirm the tool is both practical at population scale and accurate enough to flag true cases without overwhelming families with false alarms.

[citation removed] came first with the M-CHAT for parents. CESDD shifts the rater from parents to day-care staff and is designed for group care settings, opening screening to children whose families may not seek it independently.

[citation removed] later built play-based tools for preschool teachers. Both approaches share the insight that non-parent adults who observe children daily can provide reliable developmental signals.

[citation removed] and [citation removed] both used parent-completed instruments like the CBCL 1½-5. The CESDD results show day-care staff can achieve comparable accuracy, which means screening can begin during regular day-care attendance rather than waiting for a parent-initiated referral.

The CESDD is a brief, staff-completed checklist validated across nearly 7,000 children aged 3 to 39 months. You can share it with the day-care staff you consult with today. A sensitivity of .80 and specificity of .94 means most true cases get flagged and relatively few families face unnecessary follow-up. Use it to reach children who might otherwise not come to clinical attention until school age.