Screening for autism spectrum disorder with the Early Childhood Inventory-4

The early identification of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is critical for the remediation of developmental deficits. This study examined the clinical utility of ASD scoring algorithms for the Early Childhood Inventory-4 (ECI-4), a DSM-IV-referenced rating scale, as a practical solution for screening 3- to 5-year-old children for ASD in medical and public school settings.

Parents/teachers completed the ECI-4 for 3- to 5-year-old clinic referrals with an ASD (n = 196) or non-ASD psychiatric (n = 135) diagnosis. Children attending early childhood (i.e., day care, preschool, Head Start) programs were also rated by their parents (n = 507) and teachers (n = 407).

Stepwise logistic regression was used to generate ASD scoring algorithms for the ECI-4. Receiver operating characteristic analyses generally indicated high levels of sensitivity/specificity for recommended ASD cutoff scores for parent (clinic: 0.96/0.80; preschool: 0.92/0.96) and teacher (clinic: 0.81/0.79; preschool: 0.97/0.92) ratings.

Findings indicate that the ECI-4 shows promise as a clinically useful screening measure for ASD in clinic-referred and preschool children.