Tele-Assessment of Young Children Referred for Autism Spectrum Disorder Evaluation during COVID-19: Associations among Clinical Characteristics and Diagnostic Outcome

Autor/inn/en	McNally Keehn, Rebecca; Enneking, Brett; Ryan, Tybytha; James, Cristina; Tang, Qing; Blewitt, Audra; Tomlin, Angela; Corona, Laura; Wagner, Liliana
Titel	Tele-Assessment of Young Children Referred for Autism Spectrum Disorder Evaluation during COVID-19: Associations among Clinical Characteristics and Diagnostic Outcome
Quelle	In: Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 27 (2023) 5, S.1362-1376 (15 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (McNally Keehn, Rebecca) ORCID (James, Cristina) ORCID (Corona, Laura)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1362-3613
DOI	10.1177/13623613221138642
Schlagwörter	COVID-19; Pandemics; Telecommunications; Clinical Diagnosis; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Young Children; Symptoms (Individual Disorders); Evaluation Methods; Individual Characteristics; Access to Health Care; Indiana (Indianapolis); Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Telekommunikationstechnik; Autism; Autismus; Frühe Kindheit; Psychiatrische Symptomatik; Personality characteristic; Personality traits; Persönlichkeitsmerkmal
Abstract	Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rapid acceleration of innovative research on health services delivery, including real-world clinical implementation and evaluation of tele-assessment for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Extending this promising work, the present study examined clinical characteristics and diagnostic outcome for young children receiving autism spectrum disorder tele-assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The standard tele-assessment procedure included caregiver clinical interview, administration of the TELE-ASD-PEDS (TAP; a novel caregiver-mediated remote autism spectrum disorder observational assessment tool), Vineland-3, and diagnostic feedback and family counseling. Overall, our findings suggest that a definitive autism spectrum disorder diagnosis can be determined for most young children evaluated using standard tele-assessment procedures. While TAP scores and measures of adaptive functioning and "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition" autism spectrum disorder symptoms are highly associated with autism spectrum disorder diagnostic outcome, a specific pattern of Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors independently predicted differential autism spectrum disorder outcome. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the TAP is useful for evaluation of at-risk children above 36 months of age with delayed language. These results add to an increasing body of research supporting use of tele-assessment, and specifically the TAP, for diagnosis of young children referred for autism spectrum disorder evaluation. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01