Parent concerns: Differentiating developmental diagnoses in young children.

Background: Screening guidelines recommend listening closely to parent concerns to aid in the identification of children with disabilities, since parent concerns may be predictive of an eventual child diagnosis.

Methods: We performed a secondary analysis to examine the extent to which specific parent concerns differentiated six diagnostic categories (i.e., ASD, ASD + ADHD, Disruptive Impulse-Control and Conduct Disorder, developmental delays, and speech and language disorders) among 503 children 36-72 months of age. Data was drawn for a large diagnostic center in the Midwest.

Results: We performed multinomial logistic regression with parent concerns differentiating six diagnostic categories. Results indicated that parent concerns preceding a diagnostic evaluation significantly differ among children with various diagnoses.

Conclusion: Parent concerns often aligned with core diagnostic criteria; regardless of a parent's knowledge of diagnostic criteria, their observations of child behavior are exceptionally insightful.