Adapting the Early Communication Indicator as a Social Communication Outcome Measure for Young Autistic Children: A...

Area of Science:

• Developmental psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Speech and language pathology

Background:

• Social communication deficits are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
• Reliable and valid measures are crucial for early identification and intervention in young autistic children.
• Existing measures may require adaptation for specific populations like infants and toddlers with autism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot test the reliability and administration fidelity of a new play-based social communication measure for infants and toddlers diagnosed with autism.
• To adapt an existing measure, the Early Communication Indicator (ECI), for use with young autistic children in clinical and research settings.
• To report on the adaptation process, administration, and scoring of the adapted measure, named the Early Communication Indicator-Autism (ECI-A).

Main Methods:

• A two-phase pilot study was conducted with young autistic children (N = 17).
• The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) was adapted into the Early Communication Indicator-Autism (ECI-A).
• Data were collected on the ECI-A's administration by parents and scoring by research staff.

Main Results:

• The ECI-A captured a range of scores for social communication behaviors, including the ECI, Initiation of Joint Attention, and Directed Communication.
• Interrater reliability for scoring the ECI-A was found to be moderate to strong.
• Parents demonstrated high fidelity in administering the ECI-A with support from research staff.

Conclusions:

• The ECI-A shows promise as a brief, play-based measure of social communication for young autistic children.
• The measure can be administered by parents and reliably scored by trained staff with limited autism assessment background.
• Further validation studies for the ECI-A are currently in progress.