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Childhood Autism Often Undetected by Doctors

Wednesday 1st April 2015

Childhood Autism Often Undetected by Doctors
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A recent study has found that many medical professionals are missing signs of autism in child patients because time frames for clinical observation are too short to detect the disorder.

The researchers found that in a 10-minute screening, children with autism displayed "typical" behaviour 89% of the time, and medical specialists failed to detect autism cases 39% of the time.

The study, entitled "Identifying Autism in a Brief Observation," was published in the medical journal Pediatrics. Lead author, Assistant Professor Terisa Gabrielsen, and her colleagues, concluded that "The high rate of false- negative referral impressions in the study is consistent with findings indicating that in developmental disabilities generally, clinical judgement does not improve on screening test results."

The study authors noted that receptive language differences were the key underlying characteristic for the children with autistic symptoms and concluded that: "Receptive language abilities are an important area of focus in early diagnosis of developmental delays."

You can read the full paper by clicking on the External Link button below.

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