Applications to Screen Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Currently, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a highly prevalent disorder. However, children with ASD receive treatment lately. Although screening tools are available, these tools can only be operated by medical staff. Some parents of children with ASD may not be able to take their children to get the appropriate medical treatments. These may be the results of time constraint, money expense, travel difficulty, and even unknowingly which medical condition their children are having. The consequence is that the children miss the opportunity to receive proper treatments and to have appropriate developments as early as possible. Thus this article proposed the development of both web and mobile applications that helped parents access the ASD screening for their children more conveniently. The ASD screening tool was a Thai version of Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised, with Follow-Up (CM-CHAT-R/F)TM. Based on the field trial results of 20 participants, comparing the results of the application screening with the diagnosis from a child and adolescent psychiatrist or a developmental pediatrician, the application had a sensitivity and specificity of 90%.