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Development of the Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication

Description

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a huge challenge in the field of childhood developmental disability. The wide 'spectrum' of these conditions means that people's functional capacities and limitations vary enormously. Thus, it makes little sense to talk about ASDs as if they were a single disorder.

A challenge in the field of ASDs is how to categorize children's functional difficulties meaningfully. There are many tools that assess the functional status of children with ASD, but no valid and reliable functional classification system exists with which to group children with apparently similar functional status. Such a system (the GMFCS), developed by the PI's group for Cerebral Palsy (CP), is used around the world. This makes it possible to talk about and study groups of children who are similar with respect to the characteristic(s) being classified. This kind of categorization allows clinicians to answer parents' key questions ("How bad is our child's condition?" "What does the future hold for our child?"). In CP, gross motor function is the GMFCS domain by which to group ability levels. The hallmark domain that impacts on function of children with ASD, identified in our pilot work, is social communication and a spectrum of levels of this ability must be categorized.

The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate the measurement properties of an Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication (ACSF:SC), to describe and categorize functioning of preschool children with ASD. The ACFS:SC is NOT a new ASD symptom measure; rather it will be a novel classification system designed to provide a valid and reliable means to describe functionally similar children with ASDs, based on the construct of 'social communication' identified in our pilot work. With the importance of early intervention in ASDs, we are purposely focusing our present work on preschool children. Once a valid and reliable ACSF:SC has been developed, our research program will expand the work both downward to study infants and toddlers, and upward to include older children and adolescents.

Research Team

  • Dr. Peter Rosenbaum (PI)
  • Briano DiRezze
  • Dr. Mary Jo Cooley Hidecker
  • Dr. Mary Law
  • Prof. Paul Stratford
  • Dr. Peter Szatmari
  • Dr. Lonnie Zwaigenbaum

For more information, contact:

Martha Cousins
Project Coordinator & Knowledge Broker


Funders

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) $460,000 for 3 years.