Comparison of Parent Questionnaires, Examiner-Led Assessment and Parents' Concerns at 14 Months of Age as Indicators of Later Diagnosis of Autism.
Greg Pasco, Kim Davies, Helena Ribeiro and 5 others
PMID 31845131WHAT IT FOUND
At 14 months, parent questionnaires and examiner assessments flagged later autism, but parents' concerns were vague, mostly about general behaviour.
No single source was decisive. Clinicians should combine all three signals rather than relying on one, as they often disagree.
Key findings
01Q-CHAT total scores at 14 months were significantly higher for children later diagnosed with autism compared to typically developing and elevated-likelihood non-autistic groups.
02AOSI total scores at 14 months distinguished children with autism from those developing typically, but did not differ significantly from children with other developmental difficulties.
03Parents of children later diagnosed with autism expressed concerns more frequently than other groups, but these concerns were mostly about general behaviour rather than social communication, and only one parent explicitly mentioned autism.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample was drawn from a high-risk cohort (siblings of children with autism), so findings may not generalise to the general population. The group with later autism diagnoses had relatively low symptom severity at 3 years, which may have made early differentiation harder. Parents in the high-risk group may have been either hypervigilant or under-reporting due to their experience with an older sibling with autism. The study did not include standard screening tools like the M-CHAT or ADOS-Toddler Module for comparison. Findings are interpreted at the group level and are not directly applicable to individual diagnostic decisions due to high variance.
Declared interests
Funded by the Medical Research Council and Autistica. No other conflicts declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a parent's lack of specific concern about social communication at 14 months rules out autism. Parents in this study often reported general behavioural issues even when their children were later diagnosed with autism, and their concerns did not always align with objective assessments.