T-STAT for detecting autism spectrum disorder in toddlers aged 18-24 months.
T-STAT accurately flags ASD in 18–24-month-old toddlers, so consider adding it to your early-screening toolkit.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested the T-STAT on toddlers aged 18–24 months in Taiwan. They wanted to see if the tool could spot autism before the second birthday.
Doctors watched each child play and scored 12 short activities. The whole check took about 20 minutes.
What they found
T-STAT scores matched later autism diagnoses. The tool correctly flagged most toddlers who later got an ASD label.
Results say the test is reliable for kids younger than 24 months.
How this fits with other research
Wu et al. (2020) ran a similar study with the same age group and also got positive results. The new paper adds more data to that line.
Chiang et al. (2013) first showed T-STAT works for 24–35-month-olds. The 2021 study drops the age floor to 18 months, so it updates the earlier work.
Grigore et al. (2024) looked at many screens and called the evidence “inconclusive.” That sounds like a clash, but their review lumped tools of mixed quality. T-STAT now gives one more clear, positive data point for the youngest ages.
Why it matters
You can add T-STAT to your 18- and 24-month well-child visits. It is quick, play-based, and needs no extra gear. Early flags shorten the wait for diagnosis and let you start EI months sooner.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The benefits of early intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder highlight the importance of early diagnosis. Reliable diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder can be made before 24 months of age. However, many children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at a later age. Delayed diagnosis can occur for children with less severe symptoms and lead to missed opportunities for early intervention. This current study was executed to examine the Taiwanese version of the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds in detecting autism spectrum disorder in toddlers between 18 and 24 months of age. One strength of this study was the inclusion of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder or mild-autism spectrum disorder using the strict and relaxed Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.) criteria for autism spectrum disorder simultaneously. The results of this study supported that diagnosis of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder could be made reliable before 24 months of age. And the Taiwanese version of the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds was a Level 2 autism-specific screening tool for toddlers aged from 18 to 24 months in Taiwan.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021 · doi:10.1177/1362361320972300