Objective: Early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is advisable to promote better prognosis. The Mini-TEA scale was conceived as a sensitive screening for ASD among children. The authors aimed to confirm the diagnostic accuracy of the scale in a wider population.
Method: 279 children from 2.5 to 12 yo were recruited, most of them under evaluation for possible ASD in the APAE of Passo Fundo/RS, as well as children with other diagnoses and normal children. Their parents/relatives answered the 48 binary questions (yes/no) of the Mini-TEA scale, divided into 15 items, which resulted in a score from 0 to 15. After that, the children were evaluated regarding the diagnostic criteria of ASD by experienced raters (gold standard) who had previously submitted to a concordance test and remained unaware of the children's scores. Sensitivity and specificity Figs. were obtained. Factor analysis and Item Response Theory approaches were used for validity evidence.
Results: 115 children were diagnosed with ASD. Scores ≥9 had 98.3 % of sensitivity and 62.2 % of specificity for the diagnosis. Two cases with the typical presentation of Asperger's syndrome scored lower than 9. The mean time for screening was about 8.5 min. The validation model presented excellent coefficients of factorability. The analysis showed that the total variance of the scores of the scale through the 15 items was explained only by the set of ASD symptoms (unidimensionality).
Conclusion: The Mini-TEA scale is a very sensitive tool to screen for ASD and has high internal consistency for assessing typical autistic symptoms.
Keywords: Autism; Mini-TEA scale; Screening; Sensitivity; Specificity; Validation.
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