Disparities in Receipt of Early Intervention Services by Toddlers with Autism Diagnoses: an Intersectional Latent Class Analysis of Demographic Factors.

Only 225 of the 508 diagnosed children had follow-up service data. Families were excluded if the child was too old at diagnosis, if interviews had not started, or if the family could not be reached. The follow-up group was not identical to the full group. Service hours came from parent reports, not billing records, and parents may not have known the exact hours or service types. The study counted total weekly EI hours but did not separate speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, ABA, general EI, or autism-specific EI services. The findings come from Massachusetts Part C EI agencies with a regional demographic mix, so they may not apply to other states or service systems. This was an observational study. It cannot prove that demographic groups caused lower service hours, and age at diagnosis explained only part of the gap between two groups. Adaptive behavior scores were missing for many children because that measure was not used in all years.

The paper states funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration and the National Institute of Mental Health. It does not provide author conflict of interest declarations.

Do not conclude that the lower-hour groups should receive more services. The study measured only total weekly hours, not service type, quality, goals, or benefit, and more hours may not be better.