A Preliminary Trial of an Early Surveillance Program for Autism and Developmental Delays within General Practices

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Karlov, L., Masi, A., Mendoza Diaz, A., Khan, F., Winata, T., Gilbert, M., Nair, R., Dissanayake, C., Barbaro, J., Eapen, V., Team, A. S. S., Abdullahi, I., Descallar, J., Eastwood, J., Hasan, I., Jalaludin, B., Kohlhoff, J., Liaw, S. T., Lingam, R.,..., & Woolfenden, S. (2024). A Preliminary Trial of an Early Surveillance Program for Autism and Developmental Delays within General Practices. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 37(2), 279-289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-024-09952-w

Publication date: 15 Mar 2024 Added to AutiHub: 7 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
24
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 24 (4.2%)
  1. Lisa Karlov
  2. Anne Masi
  3. Antonio Mendoza Diaz
  4. Feroza Khan
  5. Teresa Winata
  6. Melissa Gilbert
  7. Radhika Nair
  8. Cheryl Dissanayake
  1. Josephine Barbaro *
  2. Valsamma Eapen
  3. Autism Surveillance Study Team
  4. Ifrah Abdullahi
  5. Joseph Descallar
  6. John Eastwood
  7. Iqbal Hasan
  8. Bin Jalaludin
  1. Jane Kohlhoff
  2. S. T. Liaw
  3. Raghu Lingam
  4. Natalie Ong
  5. Chun Wah Michael Tam
  6. Katy Unwin
  7. Katrina Williams
  8. Sue Woolfenden

Abstract

Abstract There are inequities in engagement with established early childhood developmental surveillance programs, eclipsing disadvantaged families. The current study sought to address this by dovetailing developmental surveillance with immunization visits and other opportunistic contacts with children at general practices). While 53 General Practices were recruited, significant COVID-19 disruptions resulted in only 81 children being screened (both parent-administered and GP completed). Of the 81 children, 11 screened positive and all of them along with 5% of screen negatives (i.e. 4 children) received clinician-administered reference-standard assessment for autism and developmental delay (DD) using Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), Autism Diagnostic Interview Schedule –Revised (ADI-R), and Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). All children found by reference-standard assessment to have probable autism and/or DD had screened positive during the screening process, and 90.9% of children who screened positive were found by reference-standard assessment to have probable DD or autism. The findings provide early evidence for the feasibility and usefulness of parent completed and GP administered developmental measures during opportunistic contacts with GPs as a promising method to facilitate early identification of DD or autism.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 12 Sep 2026 01:04.

Cited references
35
With a DOI
26
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
9
4 / 35 (11.4%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 35 (5.7%)
References with detected author names
33 / 35 (94.3%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
8
References with raw author names still to review
2
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
262
From DOI or external metadata
262
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
2
132 / 262 (50.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 130 / 262 (49.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
4 / 262 (1.5%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 4 / 132 (3.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 187 (0.5%).
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