Journal Article

Functional Outcomes of Children Identified Early in the Developmental Period as at Risk for ASD Utilizing the The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa)

Stenberg, Nina, Thronæs, Nina Torheim, Chawarska, Katarzyna, Svendsen, Britt Kveim, Volkmar, Fred, Suren, Pål, Schjølberg, Synnve, Macari, Suzanne, Shic, Frederick, Cicchetti, Domenic V., Bresnahan, Michaeline, Øyen, Anne-Siri, von Tetzchner, Stephen, Øien, Roald A.

2021

Overview

Early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is regarded as crucial for swift access to early intervention and, subsequently, better outcomes later in life. However, current instruments miss large proportions of children who later go on to be diagnosed with ASD, raising a question of what these instruments measure. The present study utilized data from the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study and the Autism Birth Cohort study to explore the subsequent developmental and diagnostic characteristics of children raising developmental concern on the six-critical discriminative item criterion of the M-CHAT (DFA6) at 18 months of age (N = 834). The DFA6 identified 28.8% of children diagnosed with ASD (N = 163), but 4.4% with language disorder (N = 188) and 81.3% with intellectual disability (N = 32) without ASD. Scoring in the «at-risk» range was associated with lower IQ, impaired functional language, and greater severity of autism symptoms whether children had ASD or not.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: At Risk Persons / At risk youth / Autism / Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnosis / Autism Spectrum Disorder - epidemiology / Autism Spectrum Disorder - psychology / Autism Spectrum Disorders / Autistic children / Behavioral Science and Psychology / Child / Child and School Psychology / Child Development / Child, Preschool / Children / Clinical Diagnosis / Cohort analysis / Cohort Studies / Developmental Stages / Diagnosis / Early Diagnosis / Early Intervention / Fathers / Fathers - psychology / Female / Foreign Countries / Functional impairment / Humans / Identification / Infant / Intellectual disabilities / Intellectual Disability / Intellectual Disability - diagnosis / Intellectual Disability - epidemiology / Intellectual Disability - psychology / Intelligence tests / Language / Language disorders / Language Disorders - diagnosis / Language Disorders - epidemiology / Language Impairments / Male / Medical screening / Methods / Mothers - psychology / Neurosciences / Norway - epidemiology / Norwegian / Pediatrics / Pervasive Developmental Disorders / Prognosis / Prospective Studies / Psychology / Public Health / Risk Factors / S.I. : Early Detection In Autism Spectrum Disorder / Scores / Severity (of Disability) / Symptoms (Individual Disorders) / Treatment Outcome