Early Childhood Autism Screening Questioned By Doctors

New U.S. guidelines conclude that there is not enough evidence to be certain whether toddler and preschoolers need autism screening even in case that they do not manifest symptoms of the developmental disorder. A government-backed panel of independent physicians called the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded that it's impossible to know if early childhood autism screenings help or hurt, even though routine autism screenings of children between 18 and 30 months old are already a common practice of many pediatricians.

Dr. David Grossman, vice chair of the USPSTF, declared that the panel do not recommend against screening but rather asks for more research to be done on the matter. According to Grossman, research has focused so far in particular on children who manifest symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, especially on those children who manifest severe symptoms.

The next step to helping all children is to perform more research on the impact of screening and treatment in very young children. For those young patients, often doctors and parents have not even noticed symptoms.

According to NBC News, around 2 percent of children in the United States suffer of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). These medical conditions can affect behavior, social and communication skills. Early symptoms are diverse but may include extreme resistance to changes in routine and repetitive behaviors like body rocking and hand flapping.

Sometimes severe symptoms can manifest as aggression or self-injury. The severity of autism symptoms in some children may be reduced by educational, behavioral, language and speech therapy.

There's little evidence early childhood autism screening harms children. However, unnecessary burden in terms of time and costs may be placed on some families by follow-up tests and interventions, according to the USPSTF recommendations.

Dr. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele of Columbia University argued in an editorial in JAMA Psychiatry that the recommendations could eliminate funding for pediatricians to screen toddlers and preschoolers. According to him, pediatricians should continue to perform screening for all children for autism at 18 and 24 months, as the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends.