01-02-2008
Use of a Teacher Nomination Strategy to Screen for Autism Spectrum Disorders in General Education Classrooms: A Pilot Study
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | Uitgave 2/2008
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Given a rising prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), this project aimed to develop and pilot test various teacher nomination strategies to identify children at risk for ASD in a timely, reliable, cost-effective manner. Sixty participating elementary school teachers evaluated 1323 children in total. Each teacher nominated students who most fit a description of ASD-associated characteristics, and completed the Autism Syndrome Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) on every child in the classroom. The proportion of overall agreement between teacher nomination and ASSQ was 93–95%, depending upon the nomination parameters. Nomination required 15 min per class versus 3.5–5.5 h per class for the ASSQ. These results support the need for further study of teacher nomination strategies to identify children at risk for ASD.