Friday, May 16, 2008
Champagne Terrace/Bordeaux (Novotel London West)
11:30 AM
Background: Early identification of ASD is necessary for early intervention which leads to improved developmental outcomes. To improve early detection of ASD in Flanders, we constructed a screening instrument that can be used by child care workers: the CESDD.
Objectives: To evaluate the use of child care workers as informants in the screening for ASD
Methods: As part of a larger screening project, we obtained for some children scores on the CESDD as well as on a parent questionnaire: ESAT (N = 304; mean age = 22 months; M:F = 1:1), M-CHAT (N = 680; mean age = 21 months; M:F = 1:1) or SCQ (N = 142; mean age = 26 months; M:F = 1:1). Before filling out the CESDD, the child care workers received a 3-hour training.
Results: When we compared the total scores on the CESDD with those of the parent questionnaires, all correlations were rather low but significant: Kendall’s tau was .285 (p<.001), .082 (p=.018) and .201 (p=.002) for the correlation with respectively the ESAT, M-CHAT and SCQ. Chi-square analyses of the contingency of positive and negative screens on the different measures also revealed a significant association between the reports of both informants. When we compared the CESDD with the ESAT, M-CHAT and SCQ, we became respectively a chi-square of 21.296 (p<.001), 15.037 (p<.001) and 11.780 (p=.001). The signs that were most reported for the children who screened positive on the CESDD were absence of showing (63%) and pointing (53.4 %) whereas these signs were seldom reported by parents.
Conclusions: These results support the training of child care workers in recognising signs of ASD and the inclusion of their observations in the early detection of ASD.
Objectives: To evaluate the use of child care workers as informants in the screening for ASD
Methods: As part of a larger screening project, we obtained for some children scores on the CESDD as well as on a parent questionnaire: ESAT (N = 304; mean age = 22 months; M:F = 1:1), M-CHAT (N = 680; mean age = 21 months; M:F = 1:1) or SCQ (N = 142; mean age = 26 months; M:F = 1:1). Before filling out the CESDD, the child care workers received a 3-hour training.
Results: When we compared the total scores on the CESDD with those of the parent questionnaires, all correlations were rather low but significant: Kendall’s tau was .285 (p<.001), .082 (p=.018) and .201 (p=.002) for the correlation with respectively the ESAT, M-CHAT and SCQ. Chi-square analyses of the contingency of positive and negative screens on the different measures also revealed a significant association between the reports of both informants. When we compared the CESDD with the ESAT, M-CHAT and SCQ, we became respectively a chi-square of 21.296 (p<.001), 15.037 (p<.001) and 11.780 (p=.001). The signs that were most reported for the children who screened positive on the CESDD were absence of showing (63%) and pointing (53.4 %) whereas these signs were seldom reported by parents.
Conclusions: These results support the training of child care workers in recognising signs of ASD and the inclusion of their observations in the early detection of ASD.