Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC)

Purpose: To screen for autistic tendencies in young children
Age: 12 months - 3 years of age
Time: 10-25 minutes

Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC) is an effective, validated screening tool for identifying autism and autistic tendencies in children as young as 12 months.

ADEC clearly identifies and details behaviours that can indicate autism in preverbal children. Until now, these behaviours have typically gone undiagnosed in younger children due to a lack of awareness of the behaviours that can indicate autism in preverbal children.

Those at risk can be screened and referred for a more formal diagnosis, enabling much-needed support at an early stage of development - an important contributor to successful intervention.

Key features:

• Ability to screen children as young as 12 months for autism or autistic tendencies
• Can be used with little training by general practitioners, maternal healthcare nurses, allied healthcare professionals, psychologists, therapists and special needs educators
• Assists in identifying specific behaviours that require intervention
• Able to discriminate autistic behaviours from learning disabilities and other developmental disorders with a high level of sensitivity and specificity.

Various easily accessible testing materials are required for administration of the ADEC – please refer to the ADEC Manual for information and examples of required testing materials. Testing materials are to be sourced by the ADEC administrator.