Phase 1 will analyze existing ASD symptom measures from >10,000 assessments of children to identify constructs most relevant to social-communication ability. Items will be written from the identified constructs and designed for a computer-adaptive testing format. Phase 2 will administer the candidate item pool via computer- or tablet-based administration to parents of children with ASD or other NDDs across multiple clinical sites. In Phase 3, the final item bank will be field tested via the CAT prototype with 100 clinical or research referrals with ASD or non-ASD NDD.
Impact
A measure of ability is needed to capture a range of relevant behaviors for children of different developmental levels. The absence of a validated measure for this purpose challenges the ability of researchers/clinicians to measure social-communication improvement in children with ASD and other NDDs. Analyses conducted as part of this study will inform development of a measure that can be used to describe baseline levels of ability and subsequent stability or change in children with NDDs.
