Abstract
Within the last decade there has been growing emphasis on early diagnosis of autism. It has been proved, that early diagnosis of autism followed by an appropriate intensive intervention lead to the reduction of autistic psychopathology and significant improvement of the child's prognosis.
Efforts to identify children at risk of autism as early as possible resulted in the development of many screening tools. Despite extensive efforts, the international agreement on the best screening method has not yet been established.
The article presents an overview of the most important screening tools worldwide and introduces which factors are important for the screening results. The current situation in autism screening in the Czech Republic is briefly clarified.