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Developing Autism Screening Criteria for the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA)

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Abstract

There is a critical need for evidence-based, broadband behavioral, and ASD screening measures for use in pediatric and early educational settings to ensure that young children at risk for developing social-emotional disorders and/or ASD are provided with early intervention services to optimize long-term outcomes. The BITSEA is a 42-item screener designed to identify social-emotional/behavioral problems and delays/deficits in social-emotional competence among 11–48-month-olds; 19 items describe behaviors consistent with ASD. Secondary data analysis was employed to develop cut-scores for ASD subscales using Receiver Operating Curves, discriminating children with (n = 223) and without (n = 289) ASD. Cut-scores demonstrated moderate-to-high discriminative power, sensitivity, specificity, and PPV. Findings highlight feasibility of using a broadband social-emotional competence and behavior problem screener to improve early detection of ASD.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (grant number U54MH066398 and R01MH66645), the National Center for Research Resources (grant number M01 RR0053), Autism Speaks, and the Marino Autism Research Institute. We also thank study participants and research staff for making this project possible.

Author Contributions

IGK drafted all sections of the article and conducted the majority of statistical analyses. MSF assisted with the statistical analyses and provided feedback on drafts of the manuscript. Dr. RCS offered methodological and statistical consultation, conducted some of the statistical analyses, wrote a section of the results, and offered feedback on the manuscript. Dr. ASC provided access to the datasets and supervised the statistical analyses and the writing of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA, 02125, USA

    Ivy Giserman Kiss, Melanie S. Feldman & Alice S. Carter

  2. Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    R. Christopher Sheldrick

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  1. Ivy Giserman Kiss
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  2. Melanie S. Feldman
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  3. R. Christopher Sheldrick
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  4. Alice S. Carter
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Correspondence to Alice S. Carter.

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Conflict of interest

The fourth author receives royalties related to the licensing of the BITSEA. The first three authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Giserman Kiss, I., Feldman, M.S., Sheldrick, R.C. et al. Developing Autism Screening Criteria for the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA). J Autism Dev Disord 47, 1269–1277 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3044-1

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