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Comparative Study
. 2018 Apr;48(4):1069-1080.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-017-3410-z.

Do Parents and Clinicians Agree on Ratings of Autism-Related Behaviors at 12 Months of Age? A Study of Infants at High and Low Risk for ASD

Suzanne L Macari  1 , Grace C Wu  2   3 , Kelly K Powell  2 , Scuddy Fontenelle 4th  2 , Deanna M Macris  2 , Katarzyna Chawarska  2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Do Parents and Clinicians Agree on Ratings of Autism-Related Behaviors at 12 Months of Age? A Study of Infants at High and Low Risk for ASD

Suzanne L Macari et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2018 Apr.

Abstract

Given the emphasis on early screening for ASD, it is crucial to examine the concordance between parent report and clinician observation of autism-related behaviors. Similar items were compared from the First Year Inventory (Baranek et al. First-Year Inventory (FYI) 2.0. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2003), a parent screener for ASD, and the ADOS-2 Toddler Module (Lord et al. 2013), a standardized ASD diagnostic tool. Measures were administered concurrently to 12-month-olds at high and low risk for ASD. Results suggest that clinicians and parents rated behaviors similarly. In addition, both informants rated high-risk infants as more impaired in several social-communication behaviors. Furthermore, the format of questions impacted agreement across observers. These findings have implications for the development of a new generation of screening instruments for ASD.

Keywords: ADOS-T; ASD; Clinical assessment; FYI; High-risk infants; Infancy; Parent questionnaires; Screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

Suzanne L. Macari declares that she has no conflict of interest. Grace C. Wu declares that she has no conflict of interest. Kelly K. Powell declares that she has no conflict of interest. Scuddy Fontenelle IV declares that he has no conflict of interest. Deanna M. Macris declares that she has no conflict of interest. Katarzyna Chawarska declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of First Year Inventory (FYI) composite scores in HR and LR sibs. Note: FYI composite is the sum of items 1, 6, 19, 29, 32, 30, 34, and 52. All items except 6, 30, and 52 were reverse-scored.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of ADOS-Toddler composite scores in HR and LR sibs. Note: ADOS-Toddler composite is the sum of items A1a, A2, A8, B1, B7, B12, and D5.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparisons of selected pairs of z-score transformed items across the ADOS-Toddler and the FYI. Higher z-scores indicate greater impairment.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparisons of selected pairs of z-score transformed items across the ADOS-Toddler and the FYI. Higher z-scores indicate greater impairment.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of Response to Name items (untransformed) across the ADOS-Toddler (B7), FYI Q52 (Multiple Choice), and FYI Q1R (Likert). Higher values indicate more atypical behavior. Error bars indicate +/- 1 SE. Note: *p<.01; **p<.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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