The Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST): Spanish adaptation and validation.
Use the 28-item Spanish CAST with cut-off 13 for quick, accurate ASD screening in Spanish-speaking children.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fitzpatrick et al. (2017) translated the Childhood Autism Spectrum Test into Spanish. They tested both the full 37-item form and a short 28-item form.
Parents of 4- to 12-year-old children filled out the forms. The team checked how well the Spanish CAST spotted autism against a full clinical assessment.
What they found
The Spanish CAST worked well. Both versions correctly flagged most children who had ASD and correctly cleared most who did not.
The short 28-item form with a cut-off of 13 gave the best balance. It kept the strong accuracy of the longer form while saving time.
How this fits with other research
Williams et al. (2005) first validated the English CAST in the UK. Paula’s 2017 Spanish study mirrors that work and shows the tool travels across languages.
Sun et al. (2014) adapted the CAST into Mandarin and also found good accuracy. Together these papers build a global picture: the CAST keeps its power in different cultures.
Allison et al. (2007) warned that English CAST scores can shift over time. Paula did not retest kids, so you should still treat any CAST result as a first pass, not a final label.
Why it matters
If you serve Spanish-speaking families you now have a free, 5-minute parent screen you can trust. Hand the 28-item Spanish CAST, score 13 or above as “needs follow-up,” and refer on. It fits into well-child visits, kindergarten intake, or clinic waiting rooms without extra training or cost.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST; Scott, Baron-Cohen, Bolton & Brayne, 2002) has proved to be a good test for screening autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and social communication problems. This study provides evidence on its psychometric properties, describe its validity for screening and provides data on its discriminative capabilities in a Spanish sample of 4-12 year-old children from community and clinical settings (N = 1460 and 36, respectively). Factorial and convergent validity is also assessed. The full Spanish version with a cut-off score of 15 presented a high sensitivity (83.9%) and specificity (92.5%), a positive predictive value (PPV) of .63 and an internal consistency (α) of .826. Some items showed low discriminating power and these results led us to propose a reduced version with 28 items and a cut-off score of 13, which presented a high sensitivity (85.7%) and specificity (91.16%), a PPV of .61 and an α of .839. Correlations were high between the Spanish full and reduced versions of the CAST, and ADI-R (Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised) and ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition). Like previous adaptation studies, a two-factor structure was found. The data show that the CAST can be a valid and reliable questionnaire for ASD screening in Spanish clinical and community populations. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1491-1498. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2017 · doi:10.1002/aur.1793