Expert: James Michael Roan - 8/26/2008

Question
my son is 2 years old and people say he might have autism ive been to my doctors but they said they cant do any thing til he is 3-4 yrs old. but i need to try and do something i have looked a list of symtoms and he has 17 from the list. is there someone else i can go see about it. Im so scared and have no one to talk to. thank you x

Answer
Hi Katie;

You have come to the right place! I have attached the M-CHAT and scoring guide. It's well respected by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S. It will get your pediatrician's attention and he would risk his professional integrity by not referring you if your two-year old fails it. The M-CHAT is an excellent screening tool for autism beginning at 18-24 months through 36 months. let my know what country you live in. Complete the M-CHAT and provide details for items you are not sure about. If he fails it, then I can provide you with next steps.

M-CHAT:
http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/m-chat.PDF


Scoring:
http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/Downloads_archive/m-chat_scoring.PDF



Kind regards,
James