Outline of Presentation:

While many children with ASD are diagnosed during preschool years, identification of students who have ASD but do not have a cognitive or language delay is particularly problematic, with the average age of diagnosis at 12 years.

School Psychologists and other mental health professionals play a pivotal role in the identification process of students with ASD. As front-line practitioners, these school professionals could benefit from access to a relatively easy to use screening measure to assist them in identifying children who may benefit from further diagnostic assessment.

This presentation will provide an overview of the development of a new screening scale for ASD specifically targeted at identifying school-age students who do not have cognitive delays. This instrument is considered by the developers to be psychometrically sound. The methods and results of the study will be presented, and additional information will be shared about potential educational and instructive applications from descriptive sections of the manual.