Parental concerns, provider response, and timeliness of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.

Objectives: To assess differences between child age at first parental concern and age at first parental discussion of concerns with a health care provider among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) vs those with intellectual disability/developmental delay (ID/DD), and to assess whether provider response to parental concerns is associated with delays in ASD diagnosis.

Study Design: Using nationally representative data from the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Treatment, we compared child age at parent's first developmental concern with age at first discussion of concerns with a provider, and categorized provider response as proactive or reassuring/passive, among 1420 children with ASD and 2098 children with ID/DD. In the children with ASD, we tested the association between provider response type and years of diagnostic delay.