Brief report: concurrent validity of autism symptom severity measures

Area of Science:

• Child psychology
• Developmental disorders
• Clinical assessment

Background:

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis relies on symptom severity ratings.
• Measures like ADOS, CARS, and SRS assess ASD symptom severity.
• Consistency in severity classification across measures is crucial for accurate diagnosis and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the consistency of symptom severity and diagnostic status classifications for preschool children with ASD across four common measures.
• To determine if children with ASD are similarly categorized by different assessment tools regarding their symptom severity.

Main Methods:

• A sample of 201 preschool-aged children diagnosed with ASD was assessed.
• Four measures were used: Autism Diagnostic and Observation Schedule (ADOS), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) (teacher and parent versions).
• Symptom severity and diagnostic status were compared across these measures.

Main Results:

• Approximately half of the children received similar classifications across the four measures.
• Most measures showed correlated scores, but the ADOS and SRS-Parent (SRS-P) did not correlate.
• Discrepancies were observed in child classification and autism symptom severity categorization between measures.

Conclusions:

• While ADOS, CARS, and SRS are reliable and valid, they exhibit some disagreement in classifying children with ASD and their symptom severity.
• Clinicians should be aware of potential classification variability when using multiple measures for ASD assessment.
• Further research may be needed to understand and reconcile discrepancies in ASD severity ratings across different assessment tools.