Not enough evidence for or against early screening

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U.S. Preventative Services Task for says not enough evidence eithier way for screening for autism between 18 and 30 months

I know some Autism Special interests are having a meltdown about this news but I am glad doubt is bieng raised about very early diagnosis. Every case is different but too many typical toddler behavoirs such as repetitive behaviors and apperent meltdowns mirror autistic traits. Can one really tell if the screaming child is doing it out of sensory overload or to manipulate thier parents?

An very early diagnosis often leads to therapies designed to make the child less autistic. At that age key brain wiring is occuring. The idea of these of a lot of these therapies is to deflect the autism away at this key stage in development and wire the brain to be typical. Eliminating autism via eugenics has proven to be too complicated so very early intervention is designed by some to accomplish as much the same thing as possible.

Makes sense to me. If there is a significant problem it will likely call for testing earlier than 30 months. But I do not think screening should begin before 30 mos.

Well, even though I am not really well versed in this, I tend to disagree.

Language acquisition, in particular, has certain stages in human development where it has to occur, and if it doesn't, it never can. There are other cognitive developmental milestones such as object permanence that I won't go into. But language is very critical to our later success.

Even very young infants can learn the rudiments of language, when they babble or mimic sounds.

Another way early detection may be important is to figure out if your child has sensory issues. A "difficult" child (always screaming, etc.) may just need some thoughtful restructuring of their environment. Since a very young child (under 2-1/2 years) cannot tell you what's bothering them, it would be helpful to know "maybe this kid has some problems with oversensitive senses."

I'm just speaking as a mother here.

Is there any evidence that giving these therapies to children who later turn out not to be autistic does any harm? This could include negative impact on the parents of the "false positive" child in addition to the child's development.