Reporter: A team of scientists has recently devised a new test that for the first time accurately diagnoses autism in children as young as 18 months old  When used to evaluate 16, 000 children at their 18-month checkup, the test correctly diagnosed all 10 children later confirmed to be autistic, though it also wrongly identified 2 children as autistic
Autistic children can ttherefore now benefit much earlier in life than before from the treatments already available
A diagnostic test that sometimes falsely gives a positive diagnosis can still provide a reasonable basis for treatment decisions.