Preschool Staff Spot Social Communication Difficulties, But Not Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors in Young Autistic Children.
Elisabeth Nilsson Jobs, Sven Bölte, Terje Falck-Ytter
PMID 30734175WHAT IT FOUND
Preschool staff accurately identified social communication difficulties in young autistic children, matching clinical assessments.
However, they failed to distinguish restricted and repetitive behaviors between groups. Relying on teacher reports for these specific behaviors is unreliable; direct clinical observation is required.
Key findings
01Preschool staff differentiated children with ASD from high-risk non-ASD and low-risk controls on social communication behaviors, and these ratings correlated with clinical ADOS-2 assessments.
02Preschool staff did not significantly differentiate the groups on restricted and repetitive behaviors, and these ratings showed no correlation with clinical ADOS-2 assessments.
03Only the social communication subscale contributed uniquely to distinguishing the diagnostic groups in regression analysis; the repetitive behavior scale did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (64 children). The study was conducted in Sweden, so results may not generalize to other cultural contexts. It is unknown whether preschool staff knew the children's family history of ASD, which could have influenced their ratings.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. No other conflicts of interest were reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a teacher's report of 'no repetitive behaviors' means the child lacks them. The study found that preschool staff failed to distinguish between groups on these behaviors, so a negative teacher report on restricted and repetitive behaviors is not evidence of their absence.