Description
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are diagnosed from 2 years of age; around 1% of school age children have ASD. Children’s abilities and severity of difficulties vary greatly, but all have problems in social interaction and communication and show lack of flexibility in play and thinking. There is some evidence that early interventions are effective in helping children to develop and progress, and improve family quality of life. One problem for researchers and the NHS is the multitude of measurement tools used in collecting evidence about children’s language skills, ASD characteristic behaviours, behaviours such as faddy eating, sleep problems and sensory issues, and ways of observing children’s social skills. We do not know whether such tools match parents’ priorities for their children, nor whether teachers and other professionals find them useful. A review of the quality and appropriateness of tools to monitor children’s progress and outcomes is urgently required. Our research team will first consider what might be the most important outcomes, through a survey of published literature to discover parents’ priorities for their children with ASD; consultation with some young people with ASD, and with parent advisory groups; and a survey of views of professionals working with children with ASD. The next step is to search literature about outcome measures. We will use filters to help focus on key topics, and on the measures which focus on the issues raised by parents and professionals. We will then review all the available evidence about the strongest tools, including how practical they are to use. Once we have made proposals about a possible set of ‘best’ tools, we will hold a one day meeting of the research team and parent representatives to make recommendations of a set of tools to be used in future by researchers and service providers.| Period | 1 Jun 2012 → 30 Jun 2015 |
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| Held at | University of Newcastle, United Kingdom |