Consistency between parent report and direct assessment of development in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder and other delays: Does sex assigned at birth matter?
Stephen James, Shreyas Hallur, Joshua Anbar and 3 others
PMID 37009713WHAT IT FOUND
Overall, parent report and direct testing did not differ for language and fine motor skills; in matched diagnostic groups, parents reported lower receptive language and fine motor skills, and expressive language agreement differed by sex assigned at birth in autism.
Key findings
01In the full sample, parent report and direct testing did not differ for receptive language, expressive language, or fine motor skills, and agreement did not depend on diagnostic group.
02In matched diagnostic samples, parent report and direct testing differed for receptive language in the autism spectrum disorder and autism features groups, and for fine motor skills in the autism spectrum disorder, autism features, and developmental delay groups.
03In the matched autism spectrum disorder group, parent report of expressive language was lower than direct testing for children assigned female at birth and higher than direct testing for children assigned male at birth.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The children were toddlers, on average about two years old. The findings may not apply to older children. Some results came from matched diagnostic samples rather than the full sample. Most parent reporters were mothers. The results may not reflect father reporters. The study compared developmental scores, not parent report of autism symptoms. It does not address consistency for autism symptom measures. The differences between parent report and direct testing were small to moderate, with age-equivalent differences of 1 to 3 months. The sex effect was found in a matched autism subsample. It needs replication.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The parent study was federally funded.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that parents are unreliable reporters of development. In the full sample, parent report and direct testing did not differ, and the differences appeared in matched diagnostic groups and were small to moderate. Do not read the sex difference in expressive language as established for all children; it was limited to the autism group and needs replication.