Clinical considerations in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders

Screening for infants with developmental deficits and/or autism: a Swedish pilot study

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument (SEEK) for the early detection of developmental deficits and/or autistic spectrum disorders among children by the age of 8 months at eight child health care centers in southern Sweden. Health visitors, trained by the research team, screened 312 infants. SEEK captured 5 infants with several points. Twenty-one percent of the infants obtained at least one SEEK point. At the 18-month follow-up, 5 children still showed more obvious signs of developmental problems. The health visitors found SEEK to be very satisfactory and easy and quick to use and its items and questions to be easy to administer. The results have indicated a new systematic methodology to examine infants, which is to be further developed.

Parents' detection of early signs in their children having an autistic spectrum disorder

The study aimed to describe parents' views of their early perception and detection that something was wrong with their child and to give a comprehensive description of early signs to help primary health care nurses to focus on relevant symptoms. Participants were 66 parents from a total of 37 families, a population-based sample from a Swedish county. Interview data were analyzed by manifest content analysis. The results indicated a few critical periods: around the birth, early speech development, and school start. The diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders was delayed. The parents' reports were congruent with earlier observation studies.