부산대학교 도서관

PurposeDevelopmental assessment is part of a comprehensive autism evaluation. During in-person evaluations, developmental assessment is completed via direct testing by an examiner. In telehealth evaluations, developmental assessment relies on caregiver-report instruments. This study examined correspondence between caregiver report and direct testing of developmental skills.MethodsParticipants were 93 children, aged 18-42 months, undergoing evaluation for possible autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Caregivers were interviewed with the Developmental Profile, 4th edition (DP-4) via telehealth platform and children were tested in person 2-4 weeks later using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL).ResultsCorrelations between the DP-4 and MSEL were high (ranging from 0.50 to 0.82) across standard scores, age equivalents, and functional categories, as well as across individual subtests and overall composite scores.ConclusionThe high convergent validity found in this study suggests that the DP-4 provides a suitable proxy for direct developmental testing using the MSEL in the context of telehealth evaluations for ASD in young children, delivering a good estimate of both developmental functioning and presence of delays.Trial registrationData were obtained from registered clinical trial NCT05047224, date of registration 2021-09-07.