A study on autism spectrum disorders and an analysis of the severity of behavioral phenotypes in it

Autism, also called autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a complex disorder that includes communication and behavioral problems. This disease can involve a wide range of symptoms and skills. Autism spectrum disorder can be a minor problem or a disability that requires full-time care in a special facility. People with autism have difficulty communicating. They have difficulty understanding what others are thinking and feeling. This case makes it difficult for them to express their feelings, either through words or body movements, or through the use of facial expressions and touching. The phenotypic heterogeneity of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) presents particular research challenges in the assessment of symptom severity, while the standardized Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores present a severity metric, namely calibrated severity scores (CSS) that are relatively impervious to individual characteristics. To date, no studies have examined the convergent validity of CSS in Chinese sample populations. The present study investigated the validity of the ADOS-CSS using a sample of ۳۲۱ children aged ۲-۱۸ years with ASD, and developed upon existing literature examining the influence of non-ASD-specific characteristics on other types of measures including Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS). As expected, the findings revealed that the CSS were less influenced than ADOS-RAW scores by the demographic and developmental-level variables. Moreover, compared to the ADOS-CSS, the ADI-R, SRS and VABS were still strongly correlated with confounding factors, such as chronological age, intelligence quotients, and language-level. The results of this study corroborate the utilization of CSS as a more valid indicator of ASD severity than raw scores from ADOS and other instruments.

Keywords:

Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule , Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder , Autism , Comorbidity , Symptom severity.