Modification and Validation of an Autism Observational Assessment Including ADOS-2® for Use with Children with Visual Impairment.
Naomi Dale, Elena Sakkalou, Maria H Eriksson and 1 others
PMID 39249577WHAT IT FOUND
A modified autism assessment using touch and sound instead of vision accurately identified ASD risk in blind and visually impaired children.
It distinguished those at high risk from those at low risk with very high sensitivity and specificity, offering a valid tool for this population.
Key findings
01The modified assessment demonstrated very high sensitivity and specificity for identifying children at high risk for ASD compared to clinician formulations.
02The algorithm scores significantly correlated with parent-reported social communication weaknesses on the Social Responsiveness Scale.
03Risk of ASD symptoms increased significantly with the severity of visual impairment, from moderate to profound levels.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used a single clinician for the reference standard diagnosis without independent reliability checks, which may introduce bias. The sample size was slightly smaller than the calculated target for power. The tool has not yet been validated by an independent multidisciplinary team in routine clinical settings. The assessment was only validated for children aged 4 to 7 who were verbally fluent; it does not apply to younger children or those with significant language delays.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and involved collaboration with the publishers of the ADOS-2 (Western Psychological Services) for permission to modify the test. No commercial conflicts of interest regarding the treatment were declared by the authors in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this modified assessment is ready for immediate independent clinical use. The authors state it requires further feasibility testing in routine clinical contexts and that clinicians need specialist training to administer it reliably. Additionally, the tool did not correlate with the CCC-2, so it should not replace pragmatic language assessment.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →