Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Young Children: Still Not Enough Evidence.

13 , 14 Because screening is an emotional experience for parents and potentially stressful for children, it is important to avoid an approach that will result in many false positives and negatives, as the consequences and emotional impact of being told a child has autism are likely to be significant. 15 , 16 It is also possible that children with slow development as toddlers may improve to similar levels as their peers when older, and some evidence suggests that even children who meet ASD criteria at very young ages may improve to sub-clinical levels later on. 17 , 18 Thus, screening might be inappropriate if carried out too early as it might result in false positive results due to an overtly unstable diagnosis.

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