Early diagnosis of autism: Current status of the Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits (BISCUIT-Parts 1, 2, and 3)

The benefits of early intervention for very young children with autism are now well established. Hand and hand with these interventions is the necessity of psychometrically sound diagnostic tools. Not only should these tools be instrumental in differentiating developmentally delayed and other at risk infants. These measures should also be structured to address challenging behaviors and psychopathology. The latter problems co-occur at high rates in infants who evince autism. Being able to identify these behaviors and symptoms, and to monitor the effectiveness of interventions to remediate these problems, is a high priority. The Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits (BISCUIT), is designed to address all of the issues listed. At this writing, the BISCUIT has the best psychometrics of any of the early childhood evaluation scales. Over 80 studies have been published to date using the BISCUIT. The purpose of this paper was to review the current status and future research trends using this test battery.

► The BISCUIT has the best established psychometrics for early diagnosis of autism.
► Children as young as 12 months can be diagnosed reliably for autism.
► The BISCUIT test battery measures challenging behaviors, psychopathology, and core autism symptoms.