Abstract
Background: The Bayley Scales of Development Social-Emotional questionnaire (Bayley-SE,PsychCorp,2006) and the Quantitative Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (Q-CHAT,Allison et al,2008) are newly-developed parent-completed questionnaires providing quantitative measures of early childhood social-communication difficulty. They aim to identify children “at-risk” for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Aim: To compare agreement between Bayley-SE and Q-CHAT in preterm children.
Methods: The parents of children born at ≤29+6 weeks gestation in a study evaluating routinely collected neurodevelopmental data were requested to complete the Bayley-SE and Q-CHAT. Scores were compared with population norms using Student's t-test. Children with scores >2SD from the mean were considered “at risk” for ASD. Agreement between the questionnaires in identifying these children was measured using Cohen's kappa statistic.
Results: Questionnaires have been completed by the parents of 53 children (mean [SD] gestation 26.5 [1.6] weeks, mean corrected age at assessment 24.1 [2.6] months). Scores were lower in the Bayley-SE (mean composite score 93.2 [19.7]) and higher in the Q-CHAT (mean 36.8 [7.9]) compared to reported population means (p< 0.01), indicating greater autistic traits. Q-CHAT classified 12 (22.6%) and Bayley-SE classified 5 (9.4%) children as “at-risk” for ASD; only 3 children were identified by both questionnaires (kappa=0.25 [95%CI 0-0.55]).
Conclusions: Parents of preterm children report greater early childhood social-communication difficulties than in the general population. There was poor agreement between Bayley-SE and Q-CHAT in classifying children “at risk” for ASD. Reasons may be the different emphasis placed on reciprocal social interaction in the Bayley-SE and on communication and stereotypical behaviour in the Q-CHAT.
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Wong, H., Huertas-Ceballos, A., Cowan, F. et al. Comparison of Two Parent-Completed Questionnaires for the Identification of Children at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Preterm Population. Pediatr Res 70 (Suppl 5), 361 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2011.586
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2011.586