Self-Management of Daily Life Tasks for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder Without Intellectual Disability

Date Presented 04/13/21 The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory–Computer Adaptive Test-ASD (PEDI): Responsibility Scale targets limitations in managing daily life tasks. Adolescents (ages 14–22) with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability (N = 125) performed below expectations based on their intellectual level on the PEDI. Eighty-six percent of youth demonstrated borderline or significant delays in management of life tasks. If unaddressed, this challenge may create significant barriers to success in work and independent living. Primary Author and Speaker: Elizabeth Munsell Additional Authors and Speakers: Joshua Wenig, Hannah Cooper Contributing Authors: Alexandra Gunther, Julie Russell, Jordan McNamee, and Samantha Martel

Habilidades funcionais da criança com Síndrome Congênita pelo Zika Vírus e sobrecarga da mãe

Introdução. A Síndrome Congênita pelo Zika Vírus (SCZV) provoca uma série de alterações encefálicas que tendem a impactar gravemente o desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor dessas crianças. Objetivo. Analisar a relação entre habilidades funcionais das crianças com SCZV e a sobrecarga de suas mães. Método. Estudo transversal analítico, realizado em um centro de reabilitação em Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil. Foi aplicado questionário semiestruturado com dados sociodemográficos das mães e clínicos da criança; Questionário de Avaliação da Sobrecarga do Cuidador Informal (QASCI); Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory - Computer Adaptive Test (PEDI-CAT). Resultados. Amostra composta por 32 crianças com SCZV e suas mães. Todas as mães possuíam sobrecarga de moderada a elevada. Todas as crianças apresentavam atraso nas habilidades funcionais. Foram estabelecidas correlações moderadas entre os domínios do PEDI-CAT e os domínios do QASCI (reação às exigências, mecanismos de eficácia e controle e satisfação com o papel e com o familiar), bem como com a sua pontuação final. Conclusão. As habilidades funcionais dessas crianças são gravemente impactadas. Quanto pior as habilidades funcionais das crianças, menor a sobrecarga em reação às exigências e mecanismos de eficácia e controle e maior sobrecarga na satisfação com o papel e com o familiar.

Psychometric properties of the PEDI-CAT for children and youth with spinal muscular atrophy

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Computer Adaptive Test (PEDI-CAT) in children and youth with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). METHODS: In this prospective cross-sectional study, caregivers of children and youth with SMA completed the PEDI-CAT Daily Activities and Mobility domains. A subset of caregivers completed a questionnaire about the measure. RESULTS: Mean ranks of scaled scores for Daily Activities (n = 96) and Mobility (n = 95) domains were significantly different across the three SMA types and across the three motor classifications. Normative scores indicated that 85 participants (89.5%) had limitations in Mobility and 51 in Daily Activities (53.1%). Floor effects were observed in≤10.4%of the sample for Daily Activities and Mobility. On average, caregivers completed the Mobility domain in 5.4 minutes and the Daily Activities domain in 3.3 minutes. Most caregivers reported that they provided meaningful information (92.1%), were willing to use the PEDI-CAT format again (79%), and suggested adding content including power wheelchair mobility items. CONCLUSION: Convergent validity was demonstrated for the Daily Activities and Mobility domains. Normative scores detected limitations in Mobility and Daily Activity performance for most participants with SMA. The PEDI-CATwas feasible to administer and caregivers expressed willingness to complete the PEDI-CAT in the future.

Online Computerized Adaptive Tests (CAT) of Children's Vocabulary Development in English and Mexican Spanish

Purpose: Measuring the growth of young children's vocabulary is important for researchers seeking to understand language learning as well as for clinicians aiming to identify early deficits. The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) are parent-report instruments that offer a reliable and valid method for measuring early productive and receptive language across a number of languages. CDI forms typically include hundreds of words, however, and so the burden of completion is significant. We address this limitation by building on previous work using Item Response Theory (IRT) models to create Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) versions of the CDI. We created CDI-CATs for both comprehension and production, for both American English and Mexican Spanish.Method: Using a dataset of 7,633 English-speaking children ages 12-36 months and 1,692 Spanish-speaking children ages 12-30 months, across three CDI forms (Words & Gestures, Words & Sentences, and CDI-III), we found that a 2-parameter logistic IRT model fits well for a majority of the 680 pooled items. We conducted CAT simulations on this dataset, assessing simulated tests of varying length (25-400 items). Results: We found that even very short CATs recovered participant abilities very well with little bias across ages. An empirical validation study with N=204 children ages 15-36 months showed a correlation of r=0.92 between language ability estimated from full CDI vs. CDI-CAT forms. Conclusions: We provide our item bank along with fitted parameters and other details, offer recommendations for how to construct CDI-CATs in new languages, and suggest when this type of assessment may or may not be appropriate.