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Development of T-STAT for Early Autism Screening

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Abstract

This study’s purpose was to modify the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds (STAT) into a Taiwanese version called T-STAT. Study 1 included 15 children with Autism and 15 children with Developmental Delay (DD) or language impairment (LI) aged between 24 and 35 months. Study 2 had 77 young children with Autism, PDD-NOS, or DD/LI as a clinical-based validation sample. In Study 1, the signal detection procedure found that a cutoff score of 2 would yield high sensitivity and specificity in T-STAT. In Study 2, using a score of 2 as a cutoff, the agreement between T-STAT risk and ADOS classification was highly acceptable. Results were promising as a Level 2 screening tool for Autism for ages two to three.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the parents and children who generously donated their time to this project. We would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Yen-Ting Yu, Hsing-Fang Lu, Chin-Ting Wang, Shu-Jung Chiang, Ya-Lin Peng, Chia-Ching Lin, Yi-Shan Huang and Hsieh Ya-Chi for the assessment process. Much thanks to Dr. Luke Y. Tsai at the University of Michigan Medical School and University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School for his invaluable comments and suggestions about the English editing. And much thanks to Prof. Al Staal at Eastern Michigan University and Mrs. Mary Staal for their suggestions about the final English editing for publication. This research was supported by grants from the National Science Council in Taiwan (NSC 93-2413-H-194-017, 94-2413-H-194-002, 95-2413-H-194-001 and 96-2413-H-004-021-MY3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University, No.64, Sec.2, ZhiNan Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei, 11605, Taiwan

    Chung-Hsin Chiang

  2. Research Center for Mind, Brain, and Learning, National Chengchi University, No.64, Sec.2, ZhiNan Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei, 11605, Taiwan

    Chung-Hsin Chiang

  3. Department of Psychology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Chin-Chin Wu

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, Chia-Yi, Taiwan

    Yuh-Ming Hou & Jiun-Horng Liu

  5. Department of Psychiatry, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Tainan, Taiwan

    Jiun-Horng Liu

  6. Department of Psychology, National Chung Cheng University, Chai-Yi, Taiwan

    Ching-Lin Chu

  7. Department of Psychiatry, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Yunlin, Taiwan

    Wei-Tsuen Soong

  8. Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University and University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wei-Tsuen Soong

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  1. Chung-Hsin Chiang
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  2. Chin-Chin Wu
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  6. Wei-Tsuen Soong
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Correspondence to Chung-Hsin Chiang.

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Chiang, CH., Wu, CC., Hou, YM. et al. Development of T-STAT for Early Autism Screening. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 1028–1037 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1643-4

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