Autism Nutrition

The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) is a simple but effective tool to measure the effectiveness of various autism treatments. Developed by Dr. Bernard Rimland and Dr. Stephen Edelson of the Autism Research Institute, this one-page scorecard allows parents, physicians and other health care providers to evaluate the extent of a child’s autism.

Unlike other research tools that merely diagnose autism (i.e. tell whether child is autistic or not), the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist is sensitive enough to measure changes in the child’s condition. It can determine whether the condition of an autistic child is improving or getting worse, or whether the child has recovered.

ATEC evaluates 77 items, such as whether the child knows his or her name, makes eye contact with others, or has symptoms such as bed-wetting, diarrhoea, constipation and so on. These are divided into four sub-groups that measure the child in terms of:

• Speech / Language / Communication (14 items)
• Sociability (20 items)
• Sensory / Cognitive Awareness (18 items)
• Health / Physical / Behavior (25 items)

Filling in the scorecard

It is very simple to do the ATEC Online Scoring. For example, the person doing the score will simply check whether a certain statement is “Not true”, “Somewhat true” or “Very true”. Or, for conditions such as bed-wetting, the person doing the score would check whether this is “Not a problem”, “Minor Problem”, “Moderate Problem” or “Serious Problem”. Once all the 77 items are checked, you click a button that says “Enter data for scoring”. The Autism Research Institute will then compute the score and send the results to you.

If you would like us to advise you for free on what tests or supplements are suitable for your child, please include our contact email address (enquiries @ autismrecovery.com.sg) in the “Clinician/therapist E-mail 1” text box at the bottom of the web page. You may then send a second email to followup with us.

Alternatively, you can download and print out a copy of the ATEC Scoring Form and fill it up. You can then fax it to us at +65 6251 0159 and followup with an email. We will be happy to assist you.

Range of scores

ATEC scores range from zero to 180. The lower the score, the better. If a child scores zero or close to zero, that child can no longer be distinguished from non-autistic children and thus can be considered fully recovered. The important benchmarks in scoring are as follows:

• ATEC < 30. This level places the child in the top 10 percentile. A child with score of less than 30 – or, better still, less than 20 – would have some ability to conduct normal, two-way conversations, and more or less behave normally. Such children have high chances of leading normal lives as independent individuals.
• ATEC < 50. This places the child in the 30th percentile level. The child has good chances of being semi-independent. More importantly, he or she will not likely need to be placed in an institution or “nut house”. For many parents of autistic children, being able to achieve improvement up to this level is already considered very significant.
• ATEC > 104. Even though the maximum score is 180, any person with a score of more than 104 would already be in the 90th percentile, and be considered very severely autistic.

The range of scores, and their percentile levels, are shown in the table below:

As the table shows, the scores are not evenly spread. Thus, the number of improvement points is not as vital as what the final score is. For example, a moderately autistic child who improves by 40 points, from 45 to 5, would be far better off than a severely autistic child who improves by, say, 100 points from 180 to 80.

Biomedical treatment

Clinical data, taken from 80 autistic children at The Autism Clinic, Singapore, show that on average, biomedical treatment produced a 20 point improvement, from 68 to 48.

A more detailed breakdown of the scores reveals the following:

• 6 autistic kids (8 percent) improved remarkably with biomedical autism treatment, with their scores dropping by more than 50 points.Of these, 2 are considered to have recovered, with their scores dropping to near zero. In one case, the score dropped to 4 while in another, the score dropped to 2. These kids are able to hold two-way conversations and socialize with normal students in class. They do not behave differently from other normal kids.
• 33 autistic kids (42 percent) improved greatlywith their scores dropping by 20 to 49 points.
• 16 autistic kids (20 percent) improved moderately with their scores dropping by 10 to 19 points.

There were, however, some autistic kids who did not respond to biomedical autism treatment.

• 24 kids (30 percent) are considered non-responders, registering reductions in ATEC scores of less than 10 points.Of these 12 kids received biomedical autism treatment for less than six months, so it is not clear if they would improve if they had continued the treatment longer.Another 12 kids truly did not respond despite receiving biomedical autism treatment for more than 6 months.

Recovered and near-recovered kids

ATEC < 30: A score of less than 30 means places the child in the top 10 percentile of autistic kids. The child has some ability to carry out two-way conversations (those with ATEC < 20 fare better), and more or less behave normally. Such children have high chances of leading fully independent lives. Clinical data from The Autism Clinic showed that 20 kids (25 percent) moved into this range. They achieved an average reduction in ATEC scores of 33 points after receiving biomedical autism treatment.

ATEC < 50: A score of less than 50 means that the child has good chances of leading semi-independent lives. For many parents of autistic kids, this already makes them very satisfied. The clinical data shows 14 kids (18 percent) moved into this range. They started off with average ATEC scores of 76 points (ranging from 60 points to 115 points) and, after biomedical autism treatment, reduced their scores to an average of 39 points.