Sociodemographic and Clinical Profile of 915 Autistic Preschoolers Engaged in Intensive Early Intervention in Australia.

The sample represents families who successfully accessed diagnosis and early intervention, who were more likely to have higher education and income than the general population. This means the findings may not reflect the needs of children who face barriers to accessing services. Data was volunteered by only 40.4% of eligible families, introducing potential self-selection bias. All measures were optional, resulting in varying sample sizes for different assessments (e.g., n=192 for some stress subscales vs n=820 for adaptive behaviour). The study describes the profile of children at entry but does not report outcomes or the effectiveness of the intervention they received.

The study was funded by the AEIOU Foundation, which operates the early intervention centres where the data was collected.

Do not interpret the parental stress findings as evidence that families of children with severe autism are coping well. The sample was drawn from families who had already successfully navigated the diagnostic and funding systems, and who had higher socioeconomic status. This likely excludes families with the greatest stress who could not access services.