screening for autism in 1 year olds

[hyperotreti]

I've had two children since ds1's autism diagnosis - we were given recurrence rates of 1 in 10 for dd2 & 1 in 3 for ds2.

We used the M-CHAT screening at 18 months with dd2 - she passed & is most definitely nt. ds2 is only 7 months old and my anxiety about possible ASD is starting to increase - I read this this morning & wondered if anyone knew any more about it? They say there's a 25% false positive rate which, tbh, worries me less than a false negative.

Does anyone know of any autism specialists (perhaps ABA or other EI) who work with very young at risk children?

I'd contact Prof Tony Charman. He has some expertise in this. www.ioe.ac.uk/staff/PHDT/PHDT_12.html and can probably direct you to useful people?

Can i just ask where got these figures? i ask because i too have one child with ASD and one that is NT (well she has dyslexia but no other issues), my DS has just been referred to be assessed for ASD (he has SLD and some other developmental delays), but i didnt think the recurrence rates were as high as that .

Interesting article hyper. Gad rhe UK is light years behind the US on asc isn't it.
Is your baby doing or not doing things that worry you? Would your gp get hold of the screen for you?
There was an item on radio 4 in the mind a few months ago about UK researchers developing a 6 month asc screening prof based on watching which part of a film thw babies. were watching. they were trialling it in east London.

Thanks everyone :)

We have four children - 2 nt girls, ds (ASD) & the baby. DS' paed gave us the recurrence rates while I was pregnant with ds2 (about a year ago) - they are pretty much the same rates as the big sibling recurrence study (sorry I don't have the proper name or citation - it's a few months old) came up with. Scary figures :(

He's hitting all his milestones fine so far - I'd be happier if he was babbling more, he does some consonant babbling but not loads. He's so similar to ds1, lovely smiley, sociable, happy, well developing baby ... then wham ... ASD diagnosis pretty much out of the blue at 2.5 years old (honestly all I was worried about with ds1 was language delay - I don't want to be in the position of missing signs again).

DH & I have said that we would assume he was on the spectrum rather than not & get some early intervention going; we've done 2 years of ABA with ds1 - he's done well but not miraculous, I know if we'd stared earlier it would've been better. I'm not really sure where or how to start thinking about it with such a young baby or even if there is anyone who would be willing to work with us when - at the moment - there is no problem. I suspect the answer will be wait & see if we approach he NHS, though the paed has said she'll do a developmental review at 18 months, I'd rather not wait that long.

you may be interested in this article Early Identification of Autism: How Early Can We Go?