الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Several measures have been designed or revised to diagnose autism spectrum disorder in toddlers. American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children must be screened for autism spectrum disorder at 18 to 24 months. Reliable diagnoses can be made at these early ages and early intervention can maximize child outcomes. Participation in early intervention programs has led to significant improvements in peer interactions, decreases in autistic symptomology and increases in language functioning (Wetherby et al., 2018). Because of the poor sensitivity of the original Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT), Robins et al. (1999) attempted to modify the original CHAT to a form that was questionnaire-based only, ie, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT). M-CHAT consisted of 23 questions, with 9 questions from the original CHAT and an additional 14 questions that addressed core symptoms present among young autistic children. The original observational section (ie, section B) was omitted (Robins et al., 1999). Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT-23) is a newer checklist translated into Chinese, combining the M-CHAT (23 questions) with graded scores and section B (observational section) of the CHAT. It aimed at discriminating autism at mental ages of 18 to 24 months for Chinese children Wong et al. (2004); Seif Eldin et al. (2008) translated M-CHAT into Arabic, but it was a pilot study and showed that M-CHAT is an effective tool to use in the early screen (Seif Eldin et al., 2008). The purpose of this study was to generate an Arabic version of the CHAT-23 for screening ASD in early childhood years in order to allow for identification and management of such cases. This study was carried out on 100 Egyptian children with mental age 18-24 months. Patients were divided into 2 groups; group (I) including 30 children diagnosed with ASD collected from outpatient clinic of Phoniatrics unit at Mansoura University, and group (II) including 70 children of normal children collected from nurseries. Children with mental ages < 18 months or > 24 months, children with hearing, visual or motor impairments, children with active medical condition such as epilepsy and those receiving any anticonvulsant were excluded. The checklist included self-administered questionnaire with 23 questions (part A) and direct observations of 4 items by trained investigators (part B). The Arabic questionnaire was applied to parents of both studied groups. Informed consent was taken from the parents of children participating in the study. Regarding IQ and language age, there was statistically significant difference between both studied groups with higher scores in the normal group. Arabic CHAT-23 questionnaire proved to be valid and reliable tool for early identification of autism spectrum disorder in Egyptian children with high sensitivity and specificity. Either part A or part B of Arabic CHAT could be used to distinguish between children with and without ASD with mental ages 18-24 months. The first choice for screening would be the parental questionnaire. Children failing any 15 of all 23 questions should be observed with part B. Failing any 3 of the 4 observational items would suggest ASD. Accordingly, such children should be referred for comprehensive diagnostic evaluation and direct intervention.