Abstract

Physicians are customarily the first point of contact for parents who are concerned about a child’s development. Thus, it is important for physicians to be current and educated about childhood disorders and subsequent treatment for those disorders. Recently, empirical evidence has led to the proposal of early indicators of autism supporting that autism may be diagnosed accurately in children less than three years old. Furthermore, formal screening and assessment parameters developed by medical organizations have been proposed in order to identify autism as early as possible (American Academy of Neurology, 2000). While the proposed parameters and empirical evidence support early indicators of autism, medical professionals still typically diagnose autism at 5-6 years of age. As we know from research on early intervention, intervention strategies as late as 5-6 years of age may have serious implications for a child’s future prognosis.

Currently, there is no literature that describes what factors affect when and how physicians diagnose autism. In order to initiate an evaluation of the processes, factors, and theories that may affect how physicians make their decisions to diagnose autism, 50 family physicians, 50 pediatricians, 50 pediatric neurologist and 50 child psychiatrists were randomly selected from the physician directory covering Southern California to complete a questionnaire created developed for this study. A total of total 16 physicians completed and returned the questionnaire, achieving an 8% response rate with most of the respondents being pediatric neurologists (37.5%), and pediatric psychiatrists (31.3%). Five major implications were found including; insufficient time with a patient impeding timely and accurate diagnosis of developmental disabilities and autism; the beliefs of the physician play some role in how quickly autism is suspected and/or diagnosed, training a physician receives in autism enhanced the ability to diagnose and aid in intervention, a lack of the knowledge and utilization of formal assessment measures, particularly the AAN guidelines and parameters was prevalent, and physicians who typically provide the first form of professional contact to families with developing children, spend the least amount of time with their patients, were the least aware of the AAN guidelines, and reported the least amount of education/training with autism. Based on the aforementioned findings, implications and suggestions for further research are provided.

LLU Discipline

Psychology

Department

Psychology

School

Graduate School

First Advisor

Kiti Freier

Second Advisor

Mari Baum

Third Advisor

Matt Riggs

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Level

M.A.

Year Degree Awarded

2003

Date (Title Page)

6-2003

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Autistic Disorder -- diagnosis; Early Diagnosis; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive

Type

Thesis

Page Count

ix; 78

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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