Children's Specialized Hospital, Toms River, NJ, USA.
Children's Specialized Hospital, Fanwood, NJ, USA
Autism. 2016 Apr;20(3):364-73. doi: 10.1177/1362361315585055. Epub 2015 May 19.
Early diagnosis of autism typically is associated with earlier access to intervention and improved outcomes. Daycares and preschools largely have been ignored as possible venues for early identification. This may be especially important for minority children in the United States who are typically diagnosed with autism later than White children, limiting their access to early specialized interventions and possibly resulting in poorer outcomes. Early childcare providers within underserved communities completed autism screening tools for a sample of low-risk young children (n = 967) in their programs. Early childcare providers returned screening tools for 90% of the children for whom parental consent had been received. A total of 14% of children screened positive for autism spectrum disorder and 3% of the sample met criteria for autism spectrum disorder. Among those who screened positive, 34% were lost to follow-up. Findings suggest that early childcare providers can effectively screen young children for autism spectrum disorder in preschool/daycare settings, thus improving access to early diagnosis and reducing potential healthcare disparities among underserved populations.
自闭症的早期诊断通常与更早地获得干预和更好的结果相关。日托中心和学前班在很大程度上被忽视了，没有被视为早期识别的可能场所。这对于美国的少数族裔儿童来说可能尤为重要，因为他们被诊断出患有自闭症的时间通常比白人儿童晚，限制了他们获得早期专门干预的机会，并可能导致更差的结果。在服务不足的社区中，早期儿童护理提供者为其项目中的低风险幼儿样本（n=967）完成了自闭症筛查工具。对于已获得父母同意的儿童，早期儿童护理提供者返还了 90%的筛查工具。共有 14%的儿童筛查出自闭症谱系障碍阳性，3%的样本符合自闭症谱系障碍的标准。在筛查阳性的儿童中，有 34%的儿童失访。研究结果表明，早期儿童护理提供者可以在学前/日托环境中有效地为幼儿筛查自闭症谱系障碍，从而改善早期诊断的机会，并减少服务不足人群中的潜在医疗保健差距。
