Parent and Teacher Concordance of Child Outcomes for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Kelsey S Dickson, Jessica Suhrheinrich, Sarah R Rieth and 1 others
PMID 29164440WHAT IT FOUND
Parents and teachers often disagreed about children with autism.
Parents rated adaptive skills higher, but reported more social withdrawal and better social communication than teachers. Agreement was moderate, varied by domain, and depended on cognitive ability.
Key findings
01Parent and teacher agreement was moderate but variable, and parents generally rated adaptive behavior higher than teachers.
02For autism-specific behaviors, parents and teachers disagreed in different directions: parents rated social approach/withdrawal lower, but receptive/expressive social communication higher, than teachers.
03Higher cognitive ability was linked to more agreement about adaptive behaviors and less agreement about repetitive/ritualistic and social approach/withdrawal behaviors.
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 analysis used a subset of children from a larger study, and 59 children were excluded because parent and teacher questionnaires were missing or insufficient. The included sample had fewer Hispanic/Latino youth than the larger study, 41.5% versus 76.5%, so it may not represent the original school population. Because children needed both parent and teacher reports, the sample may have included more engaged caregivers and teachers. The study did not compare children with autism to children without autism receiving school services. Results apply to school-aged youth, not older youth or young adults. The average time between ratings was 7.15 months, and a shorter or longer interval could change the pattern of agreement.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the differences between parent and teacher reports as proof that one informant is correct. The study measured agreement and disagreement across settings, not whether services helped children.