Profiles of parent-teacher discrepancy on autistic children's adaptive functioning

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Clinical guidelines emphasize multi-informant reports for diagnosing childhood challenges.
• Parent and teacher perspectives offer complementary insights into a child's functioning in different environments.
• Understanding discrepancies in reports is crucial for accurate assessment of autistic children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine parent-teacher discrepancies in rating autistic children's adaptive functioning.
• To investigate the relationship between these discrepancies and children's executive functions.
• To identify clinical correlates associated with different adaptive functioning profiles.

Main Methods:

• Latent profile analysis was used to categorize autistic children (n=194) based on parent and teacher adaptive functioning reports.
• Profiles were compared based on executive function indices and other clinical variables.
• Participants were a subsample from the Pathways in ASD cohort.

Main Results:

• Four adaptive functioning profiles were identified: lower adaptive functioning-parent higher, intermediate adaptive functioning, higher adaptive functioning, and higher adaptive functioning-teacher higher.
• The higher adaptive functioning-teacher higher profile exhibited fewer executive function challenges and higher IQ.
• Significant differences were observed across profiles in IQ, autistic traits, and teacher-rated executive functioning.

Conclusions:

• Characterizing adaptive functioning profiles aids in interpreting informant discrepancies.
• Identifying clinical correlates associated with these profiles can inform clinical decision-making for autistic children.
• Recognizing context-specific adaptive functioning variations is essential for tailored interventions.