The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will start collecting data on teenagers through its Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. (iStock)

The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which tracks the prevalence of autism among four- and eight-year-olds, will expand to track 16-year-olds. Four of the network sites will return to individuals whose information they gathered as eight-year-olds to learn about their behavioral traits, cognitive test scores and educational services received as teenagers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which fund the network, expect this information to lead to improvements in identifying autism, providing appropriate services and planning for the transition to adulthood.