The Baby and Infant Screen for Children with aUtIsm Traits-Part 3: The development of age-based scoring procedures

The objective of the current study was to develop age-based scoring procedures for the BISCUIT-Part 3, an assessment measure of challenging behaviors in infants and toddlers aged 17-37 months. Separate age-based cutoffs were developed for those with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those with non-ASD related developmental delays, using the standard deviation from the mean method. The sample consisted of 3022 infants and toddlers and their parents. As age increased in those with ASD, higher cutoff scores were required. Less variation was seen in the cutoff scores established for those with non-ASD related delays. The findings suggest that as children with ASD grow older, challenging behaviors become more frequent and severe. Additionally, they become easier to detect in comparison to same-aged peers. The implications of these results are discussed.