About this site & how it is written
If you're going to trust a website about your child's development, you deserve to know who wrote it, where the information comes from, and what — if anything — they're selling you.
Who is behind Early Signs Autism
One person writes and publishes this site: an autistic adult. Not a company, not a clinic, not an advocacy organization. Autism is not an abstract subject here — the signs were there in my own childhood long before anyone put a name to them, and that gap, between when something is visible and when someone finally recognizes it, is the reason this site exists.
I publish without a byline. What matters more than a name is that you can check the work: every claim names its source on the page where it appears, and every correction made so far is listed further down this page.
I am not a clinician, and this site never pretends otherwise. It cannot diagnose your child, and it is not a substitute for the professionals it exists to route you toward.
This site is independently published. It is not affiliated with, funded by, or speaking for any medical organization, therapy provider, advocacy group, or product company.
How the content is sourced
Every factual claim on this site traces back to one of four kinds of source, and I name it on the page where the claim appears:
- Public health authorities — primarily the CDC (including the ADDM Network surveillance reports and "Learn the Signs. Act Early." milestones) and the World Health Organization.
- Professional clinical guidance — the American Academy of Pediatrics for screening schedules and evaluation pathways; NICE guidance where the site describes UK practice.
- Peer-reviewed research — for early markers, screening-tool validation, and regression, I rely on published studies rather than secondary reporting.
- Instrument publishers — descriptions of screening and diagnostic tools come from their authors and publishers. I describe how instruments work and link to official sources; I never reproduce copyrighted test items or offer a "test" of my own.
Statistics carry their survey year, because an undated prevalence figure is how outdated numbers survive for a decade. See the statistics page, where each figure names its source.
How I check the numbers — and what I got wrong
Cut-off scores, item counts and accuracy figures are the claims on this site most likely to mislead someone if they are wrong, so they get checked against the original publications rather than copied from other websites. Most sites do this quietly, if at all. I publish the result, including the mistakes, because a corrections record you can actually inspect says more about reliability than any badge.
August 2026 — full pass over every numeric claim. Verified as correct: the M-CHAT-R/F risk bands, SCQ cut-off of 15, AQ-10 threshold of 6 and its role in NICE guidance, Q-CHAT-10 threshold of 3, CAST cut-off of 15, the CARS-2 bands, ASQ-3 structure, STAT format, AQ and RAADS-R item counts, the CDC prevalence and diagnosis-age figures, and the SACS-R accuracy data. Eight claims were wrong and were corrected:
| Page | Was | Corrected to |
|---|---|---|
| CAST | 37 items | 39 items, 31 of them scored |
| RITA-T | wrong list of what the activities assess | the nine actual constructs; ~10 minutes; cut-off 14 |
| CARS-2 | "37+ moderate-to-severe" | scale runs 15–60; 37+ is "severe" |
| SCQ | vague reference to a lower cut-off | totals 0–39; ~11 for children under 4 |
| AQ | thresholds unattributed | 32, 26 and 29 attributed to their studies |
| RAADS-R | cut-off 65 stated without caveat | added that 65 runs very loose in real clinical use |
| ASRS | item counts missing | 70 items (ages 2–5), 71 (ages 6–18) |
| CSBS-ITC | age range without qualifier | notes standalone validation from 9 months |
In the same pass I found that several CDC pages had moved to new addresses and updated every affected link.
August 2026 — sourcing pass over the myths page. Every myth and every counter-claim on the myths & facts page now cites the study or guideline it rests on, with the sample size or effect where that is what makes the claim persuasive. Two things changed as a result:
| Page | Was | Corrected to |
|---|---|---|
| Myths & facts | "Screens don't cause autism either" — stated as settled | no study shows causation, and reviews finding an association rate their own evidence very low; the honest position is "unproven," not "disproven" |
| Myths & facts | "early support meaningfully improves communication and quality of life" | softened to "can meaningfully improve communication," with Project AIM cited as the counterweight — the largest meta-analysis finds the evidence base weaker than the field's confidence in it |
A near-miss worth recording: the Cochrane review of gluten- and casein-free diets, still cited across the web, was withdrawn by Cochrane in 2019 as out of date. I checked before citing it and used the 2022 meta-analysis in Nutrition Reviews instead.
Found something else that's wrong? Tell me — it will be fixed and it will appear in these tables.
Medical review
Current status: this site does not yet carry named medical review. I would rather say that plainly than imply an authority I haven't earned. Content is written against the primary sources listed above, and clinical review by a credentialed professional — a speech-language pathologist or pediatric clinician — is planned. When it happens, the reviewer will appear by name and credentials on the pages they reviewed, with the review date, and their credentials will be independently verifiable.
Until then, the rule that governs every page applies especially: nothing here is a substitute for your child's doctor.
What this site will never do
- Diagnose. No page, checklist, or tool here can tell you whether your child is autistic. My job is to help you recognize what's worth asking about and to route you to people who can answer it.
- Sell you a cure. There is no cure for autism, because autism is not an illness. I sell nothing, and I do not accept advertising or affiliate commissions from therapy providers, supplement sellers, or programs.
- Spread vaccine misinformation. Vaccines do not cause autism. See myths & facts.
- Frame autistic children as broken. Early identification exists so children get communication tools and an environment that fits them — not so they can be made indistinguishable from anyone else. I link to autistic-led organizations because autistic adults' perspective belongs in every decision parents make.
Privacy
The interactive checklist on the signs-by-age page stores your checkmarks in your own browser's local storage. Nothing you mark is transmitted to me or to anyone else, and I do not ask for your name, your email, or anything about your child.
Corrections & contact
If something here is wrong, outdated, or misleading, I want to know — particularly from clinicians and from autistic readers. Corrections are made promptly and, where the change is substantive, noted with a date. Guidance and prevalence figures are re-checked against their primary sources at least annually.
Write to hello@earlysignsautism.com. Corrections, missing sources, broken links, a study I should have read, or a reader telling me a page reads wrong — all of it is welcome. Substantive corrections end up in the table above, named.
Medical disclaimer: This website provides general educational information only. It is not medical advice, and it cannot diagnose autism or any other condition. If you have concerns about your child's development, talk to your pediatrician, family doctor, or a qualified developmental specialist.