Recognizing Disability and Ability in Young Autistic Children

The primary goal of the study is to improve early identification of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) among children in mainstream kindergartens. ASD is characterised by impaired abilities in social communication and interaction (SCI) and restricted repetitive behaviour (RRB). In addition, ASD is also associated with special abilities/strengths. By involving kindergarten staff and parents in evaluations of children’s SCI and RRB behaviour, in addition to the children’s abilities regarding visual tasks, clinicians can be helped to identify, investigate and diagnose children with ASD at an early stage.

The results from Study 1 showed that kindergarten teachers’ assessments of children’s behaviour were more consistent with clinical assessments than those made by parents. Study 2 showed that the kindergarten teachers managed to distinguish the three groups of children from each other. Kindergarten teachers’ assessments of children’s SCI behaviour were consistent with clinical assessments, while this did not apply to kindergarten teachers’ assessments of children’s RRB behaviour. Tools designed to identify ASD through RRB behaviour should therefore be used with caution. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 show that kindergarten teachers’ assessments of children’s behaviour can be a good supplement to clinical assessments. Study 3 investigated children’s visual skills using five visual tasks. The children performed equally on all tasks except for the ‘Hidden Pictures’ task, where the ASD children performed significantly higher than the other children. This result indicates that such tasks can be used to identify children with ASD at an early age. Collectively, the three studies suggest that kindergarten teachers can assist clinicians in identifying children with symptoms of ASD and thereby contribute to early diagnosis.

All the participants in the studies were part of the longitudinal sibling research project called Early Autism Sweden (EASE).  Three studies were conducted in an overlapping sample of 3-year-old participants with siblings who either (1) were diagnosed with ASD, (2) were undiagnosed but had symptoms of ASD/neurological developmental disorders, and (3) had normal development. Participants were categorised as having a high risk of ASD (1, 2) and a low risk of ASD (3) respectively.

Study 1 investigated whether parents’ and kindergarten teachers’ rankings of autistic symptoms were consistent with diagnoses and clinical rankings of ASD symptoms. Study 2 investigated whether the kindergarten teachers could distinguish children with ASD from other children by assessing children’s autistic symptoms along the SCI and RRB axes. Study 3 investigated and compared the performance of all the participating children (groups 1, 2 and 3) on five visual tasks.

Jobs, E. N. (2018). “Recognizing Disability and Ability in Young Autistic Children.”. Akademisk avhandling. Uppsala Universitet.