Autism training to improve screening rates held: 7/29

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Autism training to improve screening rates held

MUSC hosted a two-day Act Early program June 17 that was attended by 18 South Carolina pediatricians, family physicians and health care providers.

Zachary Warren, Ph.D., director of Vanderbilt University's Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders, led the training in autism and autism screening as part of the Act Early program. The National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the Learn the Signs/Act Early campaign in 2004 to educate parents, health care professionals and child care providers about the importance of early identification and intervention for children with signs of autism spectrum disorders.

Autism training Participants at the Act Early training at Ashley River Tower.

The CDC Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Program (ADDM) estimates that 1 in 110 children have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Jane Charles, M.D., developmental pediatrician and principal investigator of the S.C. ADDM program, was invited to a CDC-sponsored Act Early Summit in 2009 for autism leaders from the state. These key stakeholders created a logic model to develop family-centered coordinated services for children with ASD and their families.

It was recognized that early and accurate diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders currently represents a pressing clinical practice issue for pediatric primary care providers. A major goal of the logic model was to increase early and accurate diagnosis of ASD in the state.

Charles obtained funding from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau for master clinical training and in June organized the first program to meet this primary goal of the S.C. logic model, a two-day training in autism plus the administration and scoring of the screening tool for autism in toddlers and young children.

Charles said she hopes that this model program will enhance ASD diagnostic consultation and identification practices designed within community health care practice settings resulting in earlier diagnosis and intervention for children in South Carolina.

Friday, July 29, 2011

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