Screening Young People for Autism with the Developmental Behavior Checklist

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether a subset of items from the Developmental Behavior Checklist (DBC) could be selected to construct a reliable autism screening tool. Method: A 29-item scale-the Developmental Behavior Checklist-Autism Screening Algorithm (DBC-ASA)-was developed by using items from the DBC and evaluated in a sample comprising 180 children who met criteria for DSM-IV autism and 180 controls matched for age, sex, and IQ range. Results: This study found that the DBC-ASA has good validity in discriminating young people (4-18 years) with autism and IQ ranging from normal to severe intellectual disability from others using a cutoff score of 17. Conclusion: The DBC-ASA is an effective autism screening questionnaire for at-risk young people, including those with intellectual disability.