Screening is a little bit different from surveillance. Screening implies the use of standardized tools at specific intervals to support and refine risks. As opposed to movies, screenings are snapshots at specif time points. It is now recommended, as you know, that patients be screened at 18 and at 24 months for Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Many screening tools exist. Probably the easiest one to get a hold of is the M-CHAT. Not only to get a hold of, but to use. Its on many websites for Science and the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics website. Its downloadable, it's free, and again, I just really oversimplified this, how to fail the M-CHAT.
You get a parent to say no to two of the following questions, and let's just read the questions because they are so simplistic. Does your child take any interest in other children? Does your child ever use his index finger to point or to ask for something? Does your child ever bring objects over to you to show you something? Does your child imitate you when you make a face? Does your child respond to his or her name? If you point at a toy across the room, does your child look at it? Easy questions.
Two no responses and you need to take the next steps, or if you want to be really simplistic, like we pediatric dumb neurologists, you can use the criteria of the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society Practice Parameter of no babbling or pointing or other gesture by 12 months, no single words by 16 months, no two word phrases by 24 months, or any loss of any language or social skills at any age. Again, low threshold for being worried.
I do want to point out that there is a period of vocabulary burst where echolalic speech is normal. So what you are looking for is a two-year-old to be able to put two phrases together, two sentence, two words together to make a meaningful phrase, not by imitating you, want milk.
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