Parent Ratings and Clinician Observational Tools in Autism: A Pilot Study in Spanish-Speaking Families

Research shows modest concordance between parent-reported rating scales (e.g., ASRS, SRS-2) and diagnostic outcomes for autistic children. Yet parents frequently provide detailed autistic behaviors during interviews that align closely with clinician observations, indicating that measurement context, such as environment, expectations, and observation setting, differentially influences parent ratings versus direct clinical observation. However, this research has been predominantly conducted with English-speaking populations, leaving measurement concordance underexplored among linguistically diverse populations, such as Spanish-speaking families. This pilot study estimates associations between parent-reported and clinician-administered autism measures in a U.S. Spanish-speaking sample.

Eighteen Spanish-speaking parents completed the ASRS and SRS-2 during their child's initial autism evaluation. Clinicians administered the CARS2-ST and ADOS-2.

Spearman's rho and Kendall's tau rank correlations showed positive associations between social communication and interaction scores on the ASRS and SRS-2, and the ADOS-2 Calibrated Severity Score (CSS). Only the ASRS social communication and interaction scores showed an association with CARS2-ST t-scores. Confidence intervals for parent-reported RRBs were not significantly associated with ADOS-2 CSS and CARS2-ST total score.

This pilot study estimates associations between autism-specific rating scales and clinician-administered observational tools among Spanish-speaking families. Findings are presented as preliminary point estimates with confidence intervals to establish a foundation for future research on culturally and linguistically responsive assessment practices and to highlight areas warranting further investigation.