Sensitivity and specificity of the Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits (BISCUIT): Validity and cutoff scores for autism and PDD-NOS in toddlers

Early identification of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is now considered best practice in the field of developmental disabilities. Despite calls by national pediatric organizations and others for routine screening in young children, such recommendations have been hard to implement in practice. One of the major unresolved problems is the need for refined diagnostic instruments that provide relevant sensitivity and specificity to accomplish this task. We report on the utility of the Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits (BISCUIT) for assisting in autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) diagnoses in a sample of 1007 “at risk” children ages 17–37 months.