Assessment of home environment for autistic individuals: a literature review of the existing tools.

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and its prevalence is estimated at 1% worldwide. The home environment can influence activities and roles for autistic individuals, however there are limited assessments that focus on the home environment for this population.

Purpose: To identify existing assessment tools of home environment for autistic individuals in the literature.

Methods: We explored five databases. Initial search on databases was made in 2019 and updated in 2022. Documents selection was made in two phases: 1) title and abstract screening, 2) full-text reading of selected publications. The included studies were analyzed.

Results: We identified seven home environment-related assessment tools that can be used with the autistic population. Most of the tools included few items related to the non-human environment and do not include specific elements of the environment (e.g.: details about sensory stimuli or assessment of the layout). Six of them are design for children or youths and only one out seven is specific to autistic people.

Conclusions: The identified tools do not allow for a detailed assessment of the non-human environment of autistic individuals only the identification of environment-related difficulties. More research and the development of new tools are needed to improve it.