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
No test intended for diagnosing autism at such an early age existed before the new test was devised.