Focusing on autism symptoms masks sex-specific needs of autistic children: An example from the Sydney Child Neurodevelopment Research Registry.

Studies have shown that there is a difference between biological sex at birth in autism spectrum disorder. There remains a lack of understanding about how the symptoms of autism differ between assigned males at birth and assigned females at birth. We looked at the presence of sex differences in a large group of autistic toddlers, children and adolescents, who were seen in a large diagnosis and assessment clinic.

Identifying Patient Safety Competencies for Healthcare Staff Treating Children and Young People With Intellectual Disability in Hospitals: A Delphi Study.

Background: Children and young people with intellectual disability have poor healthcare and are at risk of patient safety events due to lack of staff training and consensus on competencies for safe and quality care. For the adoption of reasonable adjustments in mainstream paediatric healthcare clinical competencies needed to be adapted to an existing patient safety education framework.

Methods: Thirteen experts in intellectual disability health and patient safety participated in an eDelphi survey aimed at reaching consensus on core competencies required of the paediatric healthcare workforce.

Perioperative pathways for children with neurodevelopmental conditions and behaviours that challenge: An evaluation of parent experiences for service improvement.

Aim: To elicit experiences of parents of children with neurodevelopmental conditions using a new perioperative pathway.

Method: Parents of children accessing an adapted perioperative clinical pathway in a tertiary children's hospital between July 2019 and December 2020 were invited to participate. A mixed method study was conducted comprising a short survey questionnaire followed by telephonic interviews.

A psychometric investigation of health-related quality of life measures for paediatric neurodevelopment assessment: Reliability and concurrent validity of the PEDS-QL, CHU-9D, and the EQ-5D-Y.

There is a need for tools that can provide a brief assessment of functioning for children with neurodevelopmental conditions, including health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). This study evaluated the psychometric properties of three commonly used and well known HR-QoL measures in a cohort of children presenting to clinical developmental assessment services. The most common diagnoses received in these assessment services were autism spectrum disorders.

Telehealth assessment of autism in preschoolers using the TELE-ASD-PEDS: A pilot clinical investigation.

Purpose: Appropriate early intervention is beneficial but dependent on accurate and timely diagnoses. This has been affected by long waiting lists for face-to-face clinical services, in part due to pandemic lockdowns, with telehealth introduced in many services to continue clinical services. This pilot clinical study investigated the feasibility of integrating a specially-designed telepractice autism assessment tool into a tertiary diagnostic service.