Use of a teacher nomination strategy to screen for autism spectrum disorders in general education classrooms: a pilot study.
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.
Hepburn
Susan L
SL
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA. susan.hepburn@uchsc.edu
DiGuiseppi
Carolyn
C
Rosenberg
Steven
S
Kaparich
Kristina
K
Robinson
Cordelia
C
Miller
Lisa
L
D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003120:Colorado; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires