Parent Questionnaires in the Evaluation of Pre-School Children Referred for Neuropsychiatric Assessment.
Mats Cederlund
PMID 34003428WHAT IT FOUND
Parent questionnaires tracked with autism severity, but the ABC missed many children with higher IQs.
The ESSENCE-Q identified almost all diagnosed cases regardless of ability. Use these tools as guides for assessment, not as standalone diagnostic proof.
Key findings
01All three parent questionnaires correlated significantly with the severity of the child's diagnosis, with the highest scores in children with Autism and the lowest in those without an ASD diagnosis.
02The ABC scores dropped significantly as intellectual ability increased, meaning children with higher IQs often scored below the standard diagnostic cut-off.
03The ESSENCE-Q did not show this same link to IQ and identified all but three children who received an ASD diagnosis when the standard cut-off was applied.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is relatively small, with only 18 children in the group without an ASD diagnosis. The ABC was originally designed for children with intellectual disability, which may explain its poor performance in children with normal intelligence. The study relies on parent report for the screening tools and a clinical interview for the diagnosis, without blinding the researchers to the questionnaire results during the interview.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the University of Gothenburg.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the ABC to rule out autism in children with average or above-average intelligence. The study found that children with higher IQs scored significantly lower on the ABC, often falling below the diagnostic cut-off, meaning a low ABC score does not indicate the absence of ASD in this group.