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Lay Abstract: Professional guidance and support in response to first concerns appears to be an important predictor of the level of satisfaction with the detection process of autism in young children. In this study, we analyzed the views of 1342 family members, including 1278 parents, who completed an online survey form collecting information about their experience and satisfaction with the early detection of autism in their child. Specifically, we were interested in how specific experiences with the detection process relate to the satisfaction with it and whether we could identify important predictors of satisfaction. The detection process is an emotionally charged period for parents, often described as painful, chaotic, and lengthy. A better understanding of their experiences is important to take appropriate action to improve the detection process. In our sample, the level of satisfaction with the detection process varied greatly from one respondent to another. Among the different experiences we considered, whether or not respondents received professional guidance and support in response to first concerns explained most of this variation. We also found that difficulty finding information about detection services, lack of professional guidance and support in response to first concerns, having to find a diagnostic service on one's own, and longer delays between confirmation of concerns and first appointment with a specialist were experiences associated with a greater likelihood of being unsatisfied. The findings of this study highlight the importance of the parent-professional relationship in the detection process and have important practical implications for health administrations to improve the detection process.

The Autism Spectrum Disorders in the European Union (ASDEU) survey investigated local services' use experiences of autistic adults, carers and professionals with interventions for autistic adults. The majority of the 697 participants experienced recommended considerations prior to deciding on intervention and during the intervention plan and implementation. Psychosocial interventions were the most commonly experienced interventions, while pharmacological interventions NOT recommended for core autistic symptoms were reported by fairly large proportions of participants. Family interventions were experienced slightly more commonly by carers than adults or professionals. Less than the 26% of autistic adult responders who had experienced challenging behaviors reported receiving an intervention to change them. These results provide insights for improving gaps in service provision of interventions among autistic adults., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Research providing an evidence-base for autistic adult services is sparse. The Autism Spectrum Disorders in the European Union (ASDEU) network implemented an on-line survey to determine gaps in autistic adult diagnostic evaluation and post-diagnostic support services. More than 55% in all groups experienced most of the recommended features for diagnostic evaluation for autistic adults. In contrast, < 2% of adults or carers, and < 21% of professionals experienced each of the recommended features for post-diagnostic support. In contrast to 61% of professionals, only about 30% of autistic adults and carers had knowledge of good local services models for autism diagnosis in adulthood. There are major differences between good practice guidelines for diagnostic and post-diagnostic care for autistic adults, and what is actually experienced by services users and professionals., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Early services for ASD need to canvas the opinions of both parents and professionals. These opinions are seldom compared in the same research study. This study aims to ascertain the views of families and professionals on early detection, diagnosis and intervention services for young children with ASD. An online survey compiled and analysed data from 2032 respondents across 14 European countries (60.9% were parents; 39.1% professionals). Using an ordinal scale from 1 to 7, parents' opinions were more negative (mean = 4.6; SD 2.2) compared to those of professionals (mean = 4.9; SD 1.5) when reporting satisfaction with services. The results suggest services should take into account child's age, delays in accessing services, and active stakeholders' participation when looking to improve services.

Early ASD screening has the potential to reduce delays between initial parental concerns and diagnosis, and promote early intervention. The aim of this study was to validate the M-CHAT on a French population sample of 24 month-old children. This study included a low-risk sample of 1227 children. A total of 20 children screened positive on the M-CHAT. Twelve out of 20 of these children received a diagnosis of ASD at 36 months, yielding a PPV of 0.60. These results add to the evidence that the M-CHAT is a useful screening instrument and further demonstrates the importance of the follow-up interview in primary care settings. This study provides French practitioners with guidelines regarding the use of the M-CHAT at 24 months.

There is ample behavioral evidence of diminished orientation towards faces as well as the presence of face perception impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the underlying mechanisms of these deficits are still unclear. We used face-like object stimuli that have been shown to evoke pareidolia in typically developing (TD) individuals to test the effect of a global face-like configuration on orientation and perceptual processes in young children with ASD and age-matched TD controls. We show that TD children were more likely to look first towards upright face-like objects than children with ASD, showing that a global face-like configuration elicit a stronger orientation bias in TD children as compared to children with ASD. However, once they were looking at the stimuli, both groups spent more time exploring the upright face-like object, suggesting that they both perceived it as a face. Our results are in agreement with abnormal social orienting in ASD, possibly due to an abnormal tuning of the subcortical pathway, leading to poor orienting and attention towards faces. Our results also indicate that young children with ASD can perceive a generic face holistically, such as face-like objects, further demonstrating holistic processing of faces in ASD.

Little is known about use of early interventions for autism spectrum disorder in Europe. Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder aged 7 years or younger (N = 1680) were recruited through parent organisations in 18 European countries and completed an online survey about the interventions their child received. There was considerable variation in use of interventions, and in some countries more than 20% of children received no intervention at all. The most frequently reported interventions were speech and language therapy (64%) and behavioural, developmental and relationship-based interventions (55%). In some parts of Europe, use of behavioural, developmental and relationship-based interventions was associated with higher parental educational level and time passed since diagnosis, rather than with child characteristics. These findings highlight the need to monitor use of intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder in Europe in order to contrast inequalities., (© The Author(s) 2015.)

Visual scanning of faces in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been intensively studied using eye-tracking technology. However, most of studies have relied on the same analytic approach based on the quantification of fixation time, which may have failed to reveal some important features of the scanning strategies employed by individuals with ASD. In the present study, we examined the scanning of faces in a group of 20 preschoolers with ASD and their typically developing (TD) peers, using both classical fixation time approach and a new developed approach based on transition matrices and network analysis. We found between group differences in the eye region in terms of fixation time, with increased right eye fixation time for the ASD group and increased left eye fixation time for the TD group. Our complementary network approach revealed that the left eye might play the role of an anchor in the scanning strategies of TD children but not in that of children with ASD. In ASD, fixation time on the different facial parts was almost exclusively dependent on exploratory activity. Our study highlights the importance of developing innovative measures that bear the potential of revealing new properties of the scanning strategies employed by individuals with ASD.

Le Caregiving Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ-21) permet d'évaluer le fardeau des aidants familiaux. L'objectif de cette étude est de présenter une validation d'une traduction française de ce questionnaire (FCGSQ-21) auprès de parents d'enfants ayant un trouble du spectre de l'autisme (TSA). Le CGSQ-21 a été validé auprès de 167 parents qui ont rempli six questionnaires évaluant l'optimisme, le soutien social perçu, la satisfaction, l'anxiété, la dépression et le fardeau perçu. Grâce à une analyse factorielle exploratoire (EFA) et confirmatoire (CFA), il a été testé la validité factorielle, la validité convergente et la cohérence interne du French Caregiving Strain Questionnaire (FCGSQ-21). Il est retrouvé que le modèle à trois facteurs est le plus adapté à la structure du FCGSQ-21. La validité convergente montre des corrélations significatives entre de nombreuses échelles du protocole. L'homogénéité du FCGSQ-21 est excellente avec un alpha de Cronbach à 0,90. Le FCGSQ-21 va permettre d'évaluer le niveau de fardeau des parents dans une optique d'adapter l'intervention faite auprès de l'enfant et de ses parents. The Caregiving Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ-21) allows the assessment of the burden of family caregivers. The objective of this study is to present a validation of a French translation of this questionnaire (FCGSQ-21) to parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A literature review from 2002 to 2012 highlighted that five scales measured caregivers' burden regarding children and only one English scale examined parents of children with ASD's burden. The CGSQ-21 was chosen for this study and has been validated with 167 French parents who completed an online survey. Those parents filled out a total of six questionnaires measuring optimism, perceived social support, care satisfaction, anxiety, depression and perceived burden. The factorial and convergent validities as well as the internal consistency of the FCGSQ-21 have been tested with an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A three factors model was found to best fit the structure of this scale, those include the objective burden as well as the internalized and externalized subjective burdens. The convergent validity brings to light significant correlations between many scales of the protocol. In the present study, the FCGSQ-21's homogeneity is excellent with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.90. The FCGSQ-21 is a valid and useful tool to measure the burden perceived by parents of children with ASD. This study's objective was to confirm the tool's validity in order to improve clinical practice with children and their parents. This scale evaluates parents' levels of burden perceived for the purpose of adapting interventions given to the children while taking into account parental well-being's specificities highlighted by the FCGSQ-21. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]