Autism Symptoms in Toddlers Checklist
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Almost always
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Almost always
- Rarely
- Sometimes
- Often
- Almost always
Autism Symptoms in Toddlers Checklist - Description and methodology of the test
Parents can use this Autism Symptoms in Toddlers Checklist to organize observations about everyday interaction. It treats repetition, change, noise, and distress as contexts for parent observations relevant to autism signs in toddlers. The result groups those observations into the displayed communication profile.
What This Assessment Explores
The checklist covers play and routines: responding to people, sharing interest, sounds or gestures, turn-taking, imitation, repetition, change, noise, and distress. For families considering toddler autism screening, these are item contexts for observing the single scale, not separate traits.
Results appear on Everyday social communication, scored 24-96. Bands are Quieter days (24-47), Mixed days (48-71), and Steady days (72-96). A higher score means answering people, sharing what they notice, taking a turn, and playing in more than one way during ordinary days occur more often; it is a parent observation, not a comparison with other children.
These contexts explain the result:
- Shared attention and social response show how the child notices people and joins exchanges.
- Communication and play show use of sounds, gestures, imitation, pretend and varied play.
- Flexibility and regulation show responses to transitions, repetition, noise, frustration and comfort.
Methodology and Evidence Base
Each item offers four frequency choices-Rarely, Sometimes, Often, and Almost always-anchoring answers in ordinary observations. Items cover social communication plus repetition, upset, and sensory distress. Responses form one displayed scale; no item-weighting rule or validated clinical cutoff is stated.
A relevant published screener is the M-CHAT-R/F (Robins et al., 2014), a parent-report screener for early autism-related concerns. The comparison is conceptual only: this checklist is neither that instrument nor a documented adaptation, and the overlap does not establish validity, standardization, norms, or clinical cutoffs for this checklist.
Zwaigenbaum et al. (2015) emphasize developmental surveillance, and the CDC’s 2024 summary describes social-communication, repetitive, and sensory-related signs. The online questionnaire has no stated standardization; these sources contextualize overlapping item themes, not this checklist’s norms or cutoffs.
Because these observations can vary by setting and developmental stage, the result can organize examples for further observation. Memory, expectations, current mood, and context can affect parent answers; the score is a parent observation, not a diagnosis and not a comparison with other children.
- Robins, D. L., Casagrande, K., Barton, M., Chen, C.-M. A., Dumont-Mathieu, T., & Fein, D. (2014). Validation of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised With Follow-up (M-CHAT-R/F). Pediatrics, 133(1), 37-45. 10.1542/peds.2013-1813
- Zwaigenbaum, L., Bauman, M. L., Stone, W. L., et al. (2015). Early Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder: Recommendations for Practice and Research. Pediatrics, 136(Supplement 1), S10-S40. 10.1542/peds.2014-3667C
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024, May 16). Signs and Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.