Support Needs of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Implications for Their Assessment

Area of Science:

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Psychometrics
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Support needs are crucial for diagnosing and managing autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).
• Existing assessment tools for support needs in ASD populations are limited.
• The Supports Intensity Scale for Children (SIS-C) is currently the only validated tool for assessing support needs in Spain, primarily for intellectual disability (ID).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utility of the Supports Intensity Scale for Children (SIS-C) in assessing support needs among students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).
• To determine if the SIS-C is effective for students with ASD, irrespective of the presence of intellectual disability (ID).

Main Methods:

• The study involved two groups of participants: students with ASD and ID (n=248) and students with ASD without ID (n=44).
• Results were compared to the original SIS-C validation sample, which included participants with ID without ASD (n=566).

Main Results:

• The SIS-C demonstrated potential usefulness for assessing support needs across all three subgroups (ASD with ID, ASD without ID, and ID without ASD).
• Findings suggest that distinct standardized norms may be necessary for each specific population subgroup to ensure accurate assessment.

Conclusions:

• The SIS-C can be a valuable tool for evaluating support needs in students with ASD.
• Development of population-specific norms for the SIS-C is recommended for improved accuracy in assessing diverse ASD populations.