QUESTIONNAIRE SCREENING FOR COMORBID PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS IN CONGENITALLY BLIND-CHILDREN - A PILOT-STUDY

Teachers and parents completed the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) on a clinical sample of 17 congenitally blind children. Of the 17 childre n, 4 had a definite or likely pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) a s judged by independent case note review. The ABC was administered bot h in its original format and in a slightly modified format Only teache r-completed ABCs detected group differences and had satisfactory rest- retest reliability The modified-format ABC completed by teachers detec ted 3 of the 4 children with PDDs without any false positives. Screeni ng questionnaires may have a limited but useful role in locating subje cts with blindness plus putative PDDs for further study.