Profiles of parent-teacher discrepancy on autistic children's adaptive functioning.

The sample size was modest (194 children), which may limit the detection of smaller subgroups. Parents completed the adaptive behaviour measure in an interview, while teachers used a questionnaire, which may affect how directly the scores can be compared. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if executive function causes the discrepancies or if the discrepancies reflect underlying differences in adaptive functioning. The sample consisted of children diagnosed early and had few girls or minority children, so results may not apply to all autistic populations. Children excluded from the analysis due to missing data had slightly lower autistic trait scores and were diagnosed at a younger age than those included.

The study was funded by several organisations including the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Kids Brain Health Network, and Autism Speaks. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.

Do not assume that a discrepancy between parent and teacher reports indicates that one informant is inaccurate. The differences often reflect genuine variations in the child's performance across different environments, such as the specific demands of school versus home, or the child's ability to use executive function skills in one setting but not the other.