Objectives: This study aimed to compare the occurrence of early symptoms in Korean children among three groups (autism, intellectual disability, and typically developing children) through retrospective parent reports. We used a Korean translation of the First Year Inventory (Watson et al., 2007). Additionally, we aimed to compare the results with the findings in English speaking children.
Methods: Thirty parents who have children with (a) autistic disorders (AD; n=10), (b) intellectual disabilities (ID; n=10), and (c) normal development (ND; n=10) participated in the study. The groups were matched for chronological age. The children’s age range was 3;0 through 8;10. Parents were asked to reflect on their children’s behaviors when they were age one- and two-years while completing the FYI-retrospective version. The FYI includes eight constructs and is divided into two domains; social communication (social orienting and receptive communication, social affective engagement, imitation, expressive communication) and sensory-regulatory functions (sensory processing, regulatory patterns, reactivity, repetitive play & behavior). The total risk score and the risk points in the 2 domains and each of 8 constructs were calculated based on Reznick et al. (2007) and Watson et al. (2007).
Results: Data will be further analyzed using SPSS but preliminary results are reported herein. There were significant differences among the three groups in total risk score (1-year-olds, F(2, 29)=5.536, p<.05; 2-year-olds, F(2, 29)=12.514, p<.001) and risk points on social communication domains (1-year-olds, F(2, 29)=6.175, p<.01; 2-year-olds, F(2, 29)=12.685, p<.001). However, there were no group differences in the risk point on sensory-regulatory domain at either age.
Conclusions: Results indicated that Korean children with autistic disorders could be distinguished from children with normal development at 1 year of age. The parents reported early symptoms of autistic disorders in social communication but not in the sensory regulatory domain. And the symptoms became more salient at age 2 years. Results of the current study also indicate that the Korean version of the FYI could be used in screening developmental delay in children under two years old. Validation with a larger prospective sample is clearly indicated.
See more of: Epidemiology
See more of: Prevalence, Risk factors & Intervention