Developmental disorders impose significant public health and economic burdens on society. These conditions present substantial social, communication, and behavioral challenges throughout an individual's lifetime. It is well known that early diagnosis is crucial for enabling timely and effective interventions, which improve long-term outcomes for…

Differential diagnosis of young children with suspected autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is challenging, and clinician uncertainty about a child's diagnosis may contribute to misdiagnosis and subsequent delays in access to early treatment. The current study was designed to replicate and expand a recent report in this Journal (McDonnell et al. in…

Part C early intervention (EI) starts no earlier than birth, even with a prenatal diagnosis resulting in automatic eligibility. Despite other early U.S. home visiting programs beginning prenatally and the increasing likelihood of uncovering certain diagnoses prenatally, pregnant families cannot access EI. This study sought to understand families'…

Identification procedures for autism spectrum disorders in paediatric settings include screening and routine clinical surveillance. Screening tools are perceived as challenging, and a preference for direct observation has been reported in Ecuadorian paediatric settings. Augmentative observational procedures could prompt the application of…

For proper assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of language disorders in Mandarin children, it is important to have measures that closely track the course of normal development. The current study uses a large collection of spontaneous conversational language samples to track the developmental course of five language measures: mean length of…

Sensory features are part of the diagnostic criteria for autism and include sensory hypo/hyper reactivity and unusual sensory interest; however, additional sensory differences, namely differences in sensory integration, have not been routinely explored. This study characterized sensory integration differences in a cohort of children (n = 93) with…

Perceptions of parents of young children receiving early intervention are important to understand. Parents have valuable opinions on the delivery of early interventions services and can provide critical feedback that can help professionals revise their existing early intervention delivery modalities. In the current study, we examined the…

Research indicates that early intervention can improve long term outcomes for students who struggle early in school. However, in multi-layered organization such as the school system, many elements may come into play when deciding which students will receive support. This study examined these elements including system requirements and expectations…

The timing of autism spectrum disorder detection in research and clinical practice is characterised by substantial heterogeneity ranging from infancy to school age. In this study, we examined the age of diagnosis and its associated individual and socio-familial factors in Chinese children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. A sample of 1235…

Language sample analysis (LSA) represents a venerated and ecologically valid method for diagnosing, identifying goals, and measuring progress in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). With many LSA measures available, previous research offers limited guidance on which measures should be prioritized based on their robust reliability,…

In the last 5 years, teachers have had challenging experiences while educating young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as the number of children diagnosed with the disorder has sharply increased. This transcendental phenomenological study of teachers' interactions with students with ASD during social activities answers the following…

Purpose: The purpose of this clinical focus article was to illustrate the potential of employing conversation analysis (CA) as a method for assessing social communication that is neurodiversity affirming. Method: This clinical focus article will provide an overview of CA and explain how it offers a theoretically grounded means of analyzing…

The aim of this preliminary study was to identify the practice patterns and potential barriers to diagnosing autism in Bosnia & Herzegovina. 126 children aged 23 to 94 months with developmental concerns referred to treatment centers participated in the study. Although parents had reported developmental problems in their children usually around…

The University of Minnesota's Birth to Three Clinic has adopted a holistic approach to supporting children's needs within an attachment-focused, trauma-informed, and neurodevelopmental framework rooted in the DC:0-5™ classification framework. This clinical framework of infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) assessment has been applied in…

Logistic regression was used to examine the use of Autism Spectrum diagnostic categories from pre-COVID-19 in-person evaluations and COVID-19 telehealth evaluations at a specialist community mental health clinic. The diagnostic classification for children 0-5 (DC: 0-5) affords a wider range of diagnoses that allowed for inferences of clinician…