Screening Preschoolers for Autism with Behavior Rating Scales

Early identification of autism is important in order to maximize the potential of intervention efforts. However, the identification of autism can require extensive training and experience. Psychologists routinely use behavior rating scales to assess children for various social, emotional, or behavioral problems when completing evaluations in the school or clinical setting. The focus of the current study is to determine whether a behavior rating scale can accurately distinguish between referred preschoolers with autism and referred preschoolers without autism. Parents of 82 preschoolers referred to a nonprofit child development clinic because of behavioral or developmental concerns completed two behavior rating scales as part of the initial evaluation. The findings revealed that while statistically significantly differences were found between the scores for the two groups on a number of scales, the practical implications were unclear. The use of behavior rating scales as screeners for autism in preschoolers would result in a very high false positive rate.

Name thesis:degree_name

Specialist in Education

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Psychology

Year

2009

Author dc:creator

• Gross, Amber Desiré

Contributors dc:contributor

• Carl Myers (Director),Sandy A. Bowersox,Lakeisha Meyer

• autism diagnostic instruments
• autism in preschoolers
• behavior rating scales
• Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
• Educational Psychology
• Special Education and Teaching

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/53

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wku.edu:theses-1053