The assessment of autistic children: a selective review of available instruments.

This review examines five measures specifically designed to assess autistic symptomatology: Rimland's Diagnostic Checklist for Behavior-Disturbed Children, the Behavior Rating Instrument for Autistic and Atypical Children, the Behavior Observation Scale for Autism, the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, and the Autism Behavior Checklist. Available studies of reliability and validity issues are discussed. Reliability indices for all scales, except Rimland's Diagnostic Checklist, are at acceptable levels. Each scale has been found to suffer from a lack of demonstrated discriminant and/or content validity. Recommendations for future research are provided.