• Autism
• Child development
• Screening
• Surveillance

• 1013690 National Health and Medical Research Council

• Humans
• Child, Preschool
• Male
• Female
• Reproducibility of Results
• China
• Communication
• Psychometrics
• Autistic Disorder/psychology
• Asian People
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/psychology
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnosis
• Social Behavior
• East Asian People

• Humans
• Male
• Female
• Child, Preschool
• Behavior Therapy/methods
• Autistic Disorder/therapy
• Autistic Disorder/psychology
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/therapy
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/psychology
• Treatment Outcome

• Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity
• Delivery of Health Care, Integrated
• Implementation Science
• MENTAL HEALTH
• PSYCHIATRY

• Humans
• Scoping Review as Topic
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnosis
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/therapy
• Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/diagnosis
• Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/therapy
• Research Design
• Referral and Consultation

• The Psychiatric Research Fund, the Region of Southern Denmark

• Autism spectrum disorder
• Behavioral therapy
• Healthcare setting

• Humans
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/therapy
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/psychology
• Behavior Therapy/methods
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/methods
• Treatment Outcome
• Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
• Child

• autism
• caregivers
• child
• disability
• health services accessibility
• insurance
• socioeconomic factors

• Humans
• Child, Preschool
• Australia
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Male
• Female
• Insurance, Disability/statistics & numerical data
• Autistic Disorder/therapy
• Occupational Therapy/statistics & numerical data
• Occupational Therapy/methods
• Caregivers/statistics & numerical data
• Socioeconomic Factors
• Health Services Accessibility/statistics & numerical data

• Deakin University

• Autism
• Clinical profile
• Early intervention
• High support needs
• Parental stress
• Sociodemographic characteristics

• AEIOU Foundation AEIOU Foundation

• Turner syndrome
• X chromosome
• diffusion tensor imaging
• infancy
• resting-state functional mri

• Humans
• Turner Syndrome/pathology
• Turner Syndrome/diagnostic imaging
• Turner Syndrome/physiopathology
• White Matter/diagnostic imaging
• White Matter/pathology
• Female
• Infant
• Male
• Brain/diagnostic imaging
• Brain/pathology
• Brain/physiopathology
• Neural Pathways/diagnostic imaging
• Neural Pathways/physiopathology
• Neural Pathways/pathology
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Diffusion Tensor Imaging

• UL1TR001111 NCATS NIH HHS
• NIH HHS
• WS1365413 Pfizer
• 5U54HD079124 Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
• UM1 TR004406 NCATS NIH HHS
• K01MH083045 National Institute for Mental Health
• National Institutes of Health
• National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

• Autism spectrum disorder
• Retinoic acid
• Vitamin A

• Autism Spectrum Disorder/metabolism
• Humans
• Vitamin A/metabolism
• Animals
• Vitamin A Deficiency/complications
• Vitamin A Deficiency/metabolism
• Dietary Supplements

• autism
• early start denver model
• multiethnic immigrant setting
• preschool setting
• qualitative study

• CHD
• autism spectrum disorder
• heart surgery
• neurodevelopmental disability
• neurodevelopmental outcome

• Child
• Infant
• Humans
• Male
• Female
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/complications
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnosis
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/epidemiology
• Retrospective Studies
• Heart Defects, Congenital/complications
• Heart Defects, Congenital/epidemiology
• Heart Defects, Congenital/surgery
• Risk Factors
• Seizures

• autism
• early childhood
• early intervention
• learning skills

• the financial support of the Cooperative Research Center for Living with Autism (Autism CRC)
• the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centers Program

• Autism spectrum disorders
• Child development
• Naturalistic intervention
• Parent coaching
• Parent-implemented intervention
• Routines-based intervention
• Telerehabilitation

• 18NU02 Ministry of Health -Singapore

• child development
• cognitive behavior
• diagnosis
• intervention
• neurodevelopmental delay

• Adaptive outcomes
• Behavioural
• G-ESDM
• Peer play
• School age
• Social

• Humans
• Child
• Autistic Disorder/therapy
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Attitude
• Longitudinal Studies
• Adaptation, Psychological

• La Trobe University

• Autism
• Community-based
• Feasibility
• Parent coaching
• Preemptive intervention

• Child, Preschool
• Humans
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/therapy
• Autistic Disorder/diagnosis
• Autistic Disorder/therapy
• Canada
• Early Intervention, Educational/methods
• Feasibility Studies
• Parents
• Quality of Life

• Ministry of Children and Family Development, British Columbia

• acceptability
• autism
• home-based program
• mixed methods
• parent coaching/mediated
• parent training
• satisfaction
• telehealth

• autism
• behavior
• cognition
• communication
• glutathione
• methylcobalamin
• oxidative stress
• social skills

• Adolescent
• Autistic Disorder/drug therapy
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Female
• Glutathione Disulfide/blood
• Humans
• Male
• Vitamin B 12/administration & dosage
• Vitamin B 12/analogs & derivatives
• Young Adult

• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Communication Disorders
• Disability Evaluation
• Persons with Disabilities
• Goals
• Humans
• International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
• Language

• CIHR

We aimed to address a policy-relevant research area with high priority, namely disseminating early intervention for children on the autism spectrum into mainstream community settings. The study cohort comprised 47 children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) receiving the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) intervention: 23 children attending an Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre (ASELCC) and 24 children attending a mainstream preschool setting. Group comparisons revealed that the overall response to intervention was in the majority of cases not significantly different between settings. One difference was found in that children in the mainstream preschool setting showed a significant reduction in externalising behaviours compared to the children attending the autism-specific preschool. Intervention duration was found to influence outcomes with a one-month increase in duration found to improve expressive language skills. While the results need to be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size, these findings suggest that early intervention can be successfully delivered in both autism-specific and mainstream settings. However, those families needing additional parent support may be better served by a specialised service.

• Early Start Denver Model
• autism spectrum disorder
• change
• early childhood
• early learning centre
• intervention

• Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnosis
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/therapy
• Autistic Disorder
• Child, Preschool
• Early Intervention, Educational/methods
• Early Medical Intervention
• Humans
• Mainstreaming, Education

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by abnormalities in social communication/interaction and restrictive, repetitive patterns of behavior. ASD is a relatively common psychiatric disorder, with a prevalence of approximately 1.7% in children. Although many children and adolescents with ASD visit the hospital for medical help for emotional and behavioral problems such as mood instability and self-harming behavior, there are also many visits for sleep disturbances such as insomnia and sleep resistance. Sleep disturbances are likely to increase fatigue and daytime sleepiness, impaired concentration, negatively impact on daytime functioning, and pose challenges in controlling anger and aggressive behavior. Sleep disturbance in children and adolescents with ASD negatively affects the quality of life, nothing to say the quality of life of their families and school members. In this review, sleep disturbances that are common in children and adolescents with ASD and adolescents are presented. The developmental and behavioral impacts of sleep disturbances in ASD were also considered. Finally, non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatments for sleep disturbances in children and adolescents with ASD and adolescents are reviewed.

• Autism spectrum disorder
• Insomnia
• Melatonin
• Problem behavior
• Sleep

• ABA
• Early Start Denver Model
• autism
• naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention

• Early Start Denver Model
• autism spectrum disorder
• meta-analysis
• randomized controlled trials

• Autism
• intervention
• language & communication
• play

• LEGO Foundation

• FYI
• Q-CHAT
• autism spectrum disorder
• criterion validity
• screening

• autism
• autism spectrum disorder (asd)
• outcome
• toddlers
• treatment response
• intervention

• Adolescent
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/physiopathology
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/therapy
• Behavior Rating Scale/standards
• Behavior Therapy
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Early Medical Intervention
• Humans
• Neuropsychological Tests/standards
• Outcome Assessment, Health Care/standards

• T32 HD040127 NICHD NIH HHS

• Early Start Denver Model
• autism spectrum disorder
• early intervention
• preschools

• autism spectrum disorder
• computational psychiatry
• coordination dynamics
• human-machine interface (HMI)
• interpersonal synchrony
• psychometric

• Early Start Denver Model
• autism spectrum disorder
• early intervention
• predictors

• Augmentative and alternative communication
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Early childhood
• Expressive language
• Predictors

• Autism spectrum disorder
• Tourette syndrome
• clinical features
• co-occurrence

• autism severity
• neurodevelopmental disorder
• intellectual disability
• outcome measure
• response to treatment

• Autism spectrum disorder
• Community
• Early Start Denver Model
• Early intervention
• Long-term
• School age

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is estimated to affect up to 3% of children in the United States. Public health surveillance for ASD among children aged 4 years provides information about trends in prevalence, characteristics of children with ASD, and progress made toward decreasing the age of identification of ASD so that evidence-based interventions can begin as early as possible.

2010, 2012, and 2014.

The Early Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (Early ADDM) Network is an active surveillance system that provides biennial estimates of the prevalence and characteristics of ASD among children aged 4 years whose parents or guardians lived within designated sites. During surveillance years 2010, 2012, or 2014, data were collected in seven sites: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin. The Early ADDM Network is a subset of the broader ADDM Network (which included 13 total sites over the same period) that has been conducting ASD surveillance among children aged 8 years since 2000. Each Early ADDM site covers a smaller geographic area than the broader ADDM Network. Early ADDM ASD surveillance is conducted in two phases using the same methods and project staff members as the ADDM Network. The first phase consists of reviewing and abstracting data from children’s records, including comprehensive evaluations performed by community professionals. Sources for these evaluations include general pediatric health clinics and specialized programs for children with developmental disabilities. In addition, special education records (for children aged ≥3 years) were reviewed for Arizona, Colorado, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Utah, and early intervention records (for children aged 0 to <3 years) were reviewed for New Jersey, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin; in Wisconsin, early intervention records were reviewed for 2014 only. The second phase involves a review of the abstracted evaluations by trained clinicians using a standardized case definition and method. A child is considered to meet the surveillance case definition for ASD if one or more comprehensive evaluations of that child completed by a qualified professional describes behaviors consistent with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) diagnostic criteria for any of the following conditions: autistic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS, including atypical autism), or Asperger disorder (2010, 2012, and 2014). For 2014 only, prevalence estimates based on surveillance case definitions according to DSM-IV-TR and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) were compared. This report provides estimates of overall ASD prevalence and prevalence by sex and race/ethnicity; characteristics of children aged 4 years with ASD, including age at first developmental evaluation, age at ASD diagnosis, and cognitive function; and trends in ASD prevalence and characteristics among Early ADDM sites with data for all 3 surveillance years (2010, 2012, and 2014), including comparisons with children aged 8 years living in the same geographic area. Analyses of time trends in ASD prevalence are restricted to the three sites that contributed data for all 3 surveillance years with consistent data sources (Arizona, Missouri, and New Jersey).

The overall ASD prevalence was 13.4 per 1,000 children aged 4 years in 2010, 15.3 in 2012, and 17.0 in 2014 for Early ADDM sites with data for the specific years. ASD prevalence was determined using a surveillance case definition based on DSM-IV-TR. Within each surveillance year, ASD prevalence among children aged 4 years varied across surveillance sites and was lowest each year for Missouri (8.5, 8.1, and 9.6 per 1,000, for 2010, 2012, and 2014, respectively) and highest each year for New Jersey (19.7, 22.1, and 28.4 per 1,000, for the same years, respectively). Aggregated prevalence estimates were higher for sites that reviewed education and health care records than for sites that reviewed only health care records. Among all participating sites and years, ASD prevalence among children aged 4 years was consistently higher among boys than girls; prevalence ratios ranged from 2.6 (Arizona and Wisconsin in 2010) to 5.2 boys per one girl (Colorado in 2014). In 2010, ASD prevalence was higher among non-Hispanic white children than among Hispanic children in Arizona and non-Hispanic black children in Missouri; no other differences were observed by race/ethnicity. Among four sites with ≥60% data on cognitive test scores (Arizona, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Utah), the frequency of co-occurring intellectual disabilities was significantly higher among children aged 4 years than among those aged 8 years for each site in each surveillance year except Arizona in 2010. The percentage of children with ASD who had a first evaluation by age 36 months ranged from 48.8% in Missouri in 2012 to 88.9% in Wisconsin in 2014. The percentage of children with a previous ASD diagnosis from a community provider varied by site, ranging from 43.0% for Arizona in 2012 to 86.5% for Missouri in 2012. The median age at earliest known ASD diagnosis varied from 28 months in North Carolina in 2014 to 39.0 months in Missouri and Wisconsin in 2012. In 2014, the ASD prevalence based on the DSM-IV-TR case definition was 20% higher than the prevalence based on the DSM-5 (17.0 versus 14.1 per 1,000, respectively).

Trends in ASD prevalence and characteristics among children aged 4 years during the study period were assessed for the three sites with data for all 3 years and consistent data sources (Arizona, Missouri, and New Jersey) using the DSM-IV-TR case definition; prevalence was higher in 2014 than in 2010 among children aged 4 years in New Jersey and was stable in Arizona and Missouri. In Missouri, ASD prevalence was higher among children aged 8 years than among children aged 4 years. The percentage of children with ASD who had a comprehensive evaluation by age 36 months was stable in Arizona and Missouri and decreased in New Jersey. In the three sites, no change occurred in the age at earliest known ASD diagnosis during 2010–2014.

The findings suggest that ASD prevalence among children aged 4 years was higher in 2014 than in 2010 in one site and remained stable in others. Among children with ASD, the frequency of cognitive impairment was higher among children aged 4 years than among those aged 8 years and suggests that surveillance at age 4 years might more often include children with more severe symptoms or those with co-occurring conditions such as intellectual disability. In the sites with data for all years and consistent data sources, no change in the age at earliest known ASD diagnosis was found, and children received their first developmental evaluation at the same or a later age in 2014 compared with 2010. Delays in the initiation of a first developmental evaluation might adversely affect children by delaying access to treatment and special services that can improve outcomes for children with ASD.

Efforts to increase awareness of ASD and improve the identification of ASD by community providers can facilitate early diagnosis of children with ASD. Heterogeneity of results across sites suggests that community-level differences in evaluation and diagnostic services as well as access to data sources might affect estimates of ASD prevalence and age of identification. Continuing improvements in providing developmental evaluations to children as soon as developmental concerns are identified might result in earlier ASD diagnoses and earlier receipt of services, which might improve developmental outcomes.

Previous research suggests that parents raising a child with autism experience higher levels of psychological distress than parents of typically developing children and parents of children with other developmental disorders. Little is known, however, about the intersection between the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on the wellbeing and sense of parental competency of parents of pre-schoolers with autism and how it relates to child symptom severity.

To examine the relationship between their child’s symptom severity, SES, as measured by neighbourhood advantage and occupational status, on the psychological wellbeing and perceived parenting competence among parents of preschoolers with autism.

Parents of 117 preschool-aged children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 107 mothers and 54 fathers, completed questionnaires about their child’s symptoms of ASD and functioning, their own perceptions of their wellbeing and parental competence on entry to an early intervention program in Sydney, Australia. Parents also provided demographic information pertaining to their occupation, level of education attained and address (postcode). All children were also assessed for their severity of symptoms using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. The Australian Socioeconomic Index of occupational status as a measure of familial SES and the Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage as a measure of neighbourhood advantage were used to examine the impact of SES on parental sense of competence and wellbeing.

Compared to normative populations, both mothers and fathers in our sample reported significantly higher levels of parenting sense of efficacy but lower levels of interest in the parenting role. Mothers also displayed higher levels of satisfaction. Both mothers and fathers displayed higher levels of depression than normative populations with mothers also reporting greater levels of stress and anxiety. Child symptom severity was associated with maternal parenting competency with these relationships amplified among mothers with higher familial SES and who lived in areas of greater neighbourhood advantage. Increased adaptive functioning was associated with better maternal wellbeing, particularly among mothers who lived in areas of greater neighbourhood advantage. Contrastingly, paternal parenting competence was generally not influenced by child adaptive functioning or symptom severity, although for those in higher familial SES brackets, children’s symptom severity and maladaptive symptoms were negatively related to paternal sense of parenting efficacy. There was a trend towards moderate relationships between lower familial SES and greater depression, stress and anxiety among fathers, but no relationship with their child’s ASD symptom severity or functioning.

SES differentially impacts wellbeing and sense of parenting competence and its relationship to the impact of child symptoms for mothers and fathers of preschoolers with autism.

• Wellbeing
• Parenting competency
• Autism
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Parent
• Mother
• Father
• Socioeconomic status

• Autism
• Autism Spectrum Rating Scale
• Chinese
• Reliability
• Validity

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

2012.

The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network is an active surveillance system that provides estimates of the prevalence and characteristics of ASD among children aged 8 years whose parents or guardians reside in 11 ADDM Network sites in the United States (Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin). Surveillance to determine ASD case status is conducted in two phases. The first phase consists of screening and abstracting comprehensive evaluations performed by professional service providers in the community. Data sources identified for record review are categorized as either 1) education source type, including developmental evaluations to determine eligibility for special education services or 2) health care source type, including diagnostic and developmental evaluations. The second phase involves the review of all abstracted evaluations by trained clinicians to determine ASD surveillance case status. A child meets the surveillance case definition for ASD if one or more comprehensive evaluations of that child completed by a qualified professional describes behaviors that are consistent with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision diagnostic criteria for any of the following conditions: autistic disorder, pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (including atypical autism), or Asperger disorder. This report provides ASD prevalence estimates for children aged 8 years living in catchment areas of the ADDM Network sites in 2012, overall and stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, and the type of source records (education and health records versus health records only). In addition, this report describes the proportion of children with ASD with a score consistent with intellectual disability on a standardized intellectual ability test, the age at which the earliest known comprehensive evaluation was performed, the proportion of children with a previous ASD diagnosis, the specific type of ASD diagnosis, and any special education eligibility classification.

For 2012, the combined estimated prevalence of ASD among the 11 ADDM Network sites was 14.5 per 1,000 (one in 69) children aged 8 years. Estimated prevalence was significantly higher among boys aged 8 years (23.4 per 1,000) than among girls aged 8 years (5.2 per 1,000). Estimated ASD prevalence was significantly higher among non-Hispanic white children aged 8 years (15.3 per 1,000) compared with non-Hispanic black children (13.1 per 1,000), and Hispanic (10.2 per 1,000) children aged 8 years. Estimated prevalence varied widely among the 11 ADDM Network sites, ranging from 8.2 per 1,000 children aged 8 years (in the area of the Maryland site where only health care records were reviewed) to 24.6 per 1,000 children aged 8 years (in New Jersey, where both education and health care records were reviewed). Estimated prevalence was higher in surveillance sites where education records and health records were reviewed compared with sites where health records only were reviewed (17.1 per 1,000 and 10.4 per 1,000 children aged 8 years, respectively; p<0.05). Among children identified with ASD by the ADDM Network, 82% had a previous ASD diagnosis or educational classification; this did not vary by sex or between non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black children. A lower percentage of Hispanic children (78%) had a previous ASD diagnosis or classification compared with non-Hispanic white children (82%) and with non-Hispanic black children (84%). The median age at earliest known comprehensive evaluation was 40 months, and 43% of children had received an earliest known comprehensive evaluation by age 36 months. The percentage of children with an earliest known comprehensive evaluation by age 36 months was similar for boys and girls, but was higher for non-Hispanic white children (45%) compared with non-Hispanic black children (40%) and Hispanic children (39%).

Overall estimated ASD prevalence was 14.5 per 1,000 children aged 8 years in the ADDM Network sites in 2012. The higher estimated prevalence among sites that reviewed both education and health records suggests the role of special education systems in providing comprehensive evaluations and services to children with developmental disabilities. Disparities by race/ethnicity in estimated ASD prevalence, particularly for Hispanic children, as well as disparities in the age of earliest comprehensive evaluation and presence of a previous ASD diagnosis or classification, suggest that access to treatment and services might be lacking or delayed for some children.

The ADDM Network will continue to monitor the prevalence and characteristics of ASD among children aged 8 years living in selected sites across the United States. Recommendations from the ADDM Network include enhancing strategies to 1) lower the age of first evaluation of ASD by community providers in accordance with the Healthy People 2020 goal that children with ASD are evaluated by age 36 months and begin receiving community-based support and services by age 48 months; 2) reduce disparities by race/ethnicity in identified ASD prevalence, the age of first comprehensive evaluation, and presence of a previous ASD diagnosis or classification; and 3) assess the effect on ASD prevalence of the revised ASD diagnostic criteria published in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.

• 早期介入丹佛模式
• 孤独症谱系障碍
• 异常行为量表
• 儿童
• early start denver model
• autism spectrum disorder
• aberrant behavior checklist
• child

• autism spectrum disorder
• cluster analysis
• early intervention
• subtyping

• Adaptation, Psychological
• Australia
• Autism Spectrum Disorder/therapy
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Cluster Analysis
• Early Intervention, Educational/methods
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Social Behavior
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Treatment Outcome

Background: No sufficient biomarkers are available for early identification of autism in the general population. Currently, the diagnosis of ASD depends on behavioral assessments. A useful screening tool can help to detect early autistic symptoms and provide children an early opportunity for ASD-related interventions. This research aimed to assess cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the autism spectrum rating scale (ASRS) under the Chinese cultural environment.

Methods: Participants were recruited from 17 kindergartens and 5 special education schools across five cities (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha, Chengdu, and Harbin) in China. A total of 2,181 kindergarten children and 207 ASD cases participated in this study. Mplus 7.03 was utilized to conduct exploratory factor analysis, followed by adaptive modifications to construct the revised Chinese version of the ASRS (RC_ASRS).

Results: The result showed that 62 items comprised a two-factor structure; Factor 1 (social communication, SC) included 21 items, and Factor 2 (unusual behavior, UB) included 41 items. Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.87 to 0.91 within the RC_ASRS. The total score and the SC and UB scores were significantly higher in ASD cases than in kindergarten samples (Cohen's d ranged from 0.82 to 2.72). The total RC_ASRS score showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.95 (95% CI: 0.93–0.97). With a total score cut-off ≥ 60, the RC_ASRS is an excellent tool to identify ASD cases from Chinese kindergarten children (sensitivity = 88.6%, specificity = 84.5%).

Conclusions: The RC_ASRS has excellent psychometric properties and is a reliable, useful tool for early ASD screening among Chinese children.

• ASD
• ASRS
• cross culture
• early screening
• psychometric properties

The outcomes of psycho-educational interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) comorbid with severe to moderate intellectual disability (ID) are insufficiently documented. In this prospective study, we examined a developmental individual, interactive and intensive approach, called the ‘3i method’, which is based on play therapy.

Twenty DSM-IV-TR ASD subjects (mean chronological age 63.8 ± 37.8 months; mean developmental age 19.5 ± 6.6 months) were included and followed the 3i method for 24 months. Developmental and behavioural skills were assessed at baseline and after 24 months using the VABS, PEP-R and Nadel Imitation scale. Autism severity was evaluated using the Child Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R).

After 2 years of the 3i method, our 3 primary outcome variables significantly increased (VABS developmental age of socialization increased by 83%, age of communication by 34%, and Nadel Imitation score by 53%). Almost all VABS and PEP-R domains significantly improved. Additionally, increases in the VABS socialization score were positively correlated with the total number of treatment hours and CARS score; all ADI-R areas significantly decreased; and diagnoses had changed in 47.5% of the subjects (37% for PDD-NOS and even 10.5% for ID without PDD).

Children who followed the 3i method for 2 years had significantly improved behavioural and developmental skills and showed a clear decrease in autism severity. These results suggest that the 3i method may be useful for autistic children by improving their daily interactions with their social environment.

was retrospectively registered on May 20th, 2014 by the French Agency for drug and health (ANSM) under number ID-RCB 2014-A00542–45, reference: B148558–31.

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12887-018-1126-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

• 3i method
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Developmental intervention
• Play-therapy

• ASD
• Europe
• detection
• early intervention
• screening tools