New Guidelines Promise Earlier Identification of Autism

The CDC and the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders has released new guidelines for identifying children at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental delays. From the press release dated today, 4/23/07:

Leading experts on child development today presented a new framework for identifying children at risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental challenges, saying that current guidelines fail to identify many children who need and would benefit from early intervention.

The framework is contained in a report by a special working group formed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental Learning Disorders (ICDL), co-chaired by Dr. José Cordero, former Director of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and currently Dean of the School of Public Health of the University of Puerto Rico, and Dr. Stanley Greenspan, chair of the ICDL.

We believe this framework improves our ability to identify infants, young children, and families at risk and to organize truly comprehensive, developmentally-based intervention efforts.
The framework presents newly formulated indicators to identify at-risk children in the first and second years of life, components for a comprehensive evaluation of infants and children determined to be at risk, and essential elements of a successful early intervention program for ASD and other developmental disorders.

The authors say the new rubric casts a wider net than current common practice in an effort to identify all children at risk of developmental disabilities.

“Children identified with developmental or behavioral disabilities earlier have a better chance of reaching their full potential,” said Dr. Cordero. “We believe this framework improves our ability to identify infants, young children, and families at risk and to organize truly comprehensive, developmentally-based intervention efforts.”

The CDC-ICDL framework is based on current understanding of healthy developmental patterns and is designed to detect all possible deviations from those patterns. It uses risk indicators designed to detect a lack of mastery of age-expected emotional, social, and cognitive milestones during a child’s first 2 years of life.

The entire press release can be viewed here: New Guidelines Promise Earlier Identification of Autism – CDC/ICDL Working Group Releases New Report during Autism Awareness Month and the report can be viewed on the ICDL website: CDC/ICDL Collaboration Report On A Framework for Early Identification and Preventive Intervention of Emotional and Developmental Challenges

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