Objectives: To investigate age-related trends in types of treatments pursued by parents of children with ASD.
Methods: Participants will include children with ASD between the ages of 4 and 18 who are participating in the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC; https://sfari.org/simons-simplex-collection). Currently, 1,887 children have received ASD diagnoses via research-reliable administrations of the ADI-R and ADOS within the SSC. Data regarding types of treatment pursued by each family were collected through an extensive Treatment History Form, dating back to age 2 years, as well as a Medical History Interview. Categories of treatments include: speech therapy, occupational therapy, psychotropic medications (e.g., antipsychotics, ADD/ADHD medications), intensive behavioral therapies (e.g., ABA), biomedical treatments (e.g., chelation, special diets), and other treatments (e.g., social-skills training, picture exchange system). Descriptive data will be presented in multiple graphs to enable visual comparison of proportions of children receiving different treatment types at various ages (range = 2—18 years). Chi-square analyses will be conducted to investigate whether the difference in proportions of children receiving various treatments is statistically significant.
Results: We expect that differences in treatment-type utilization will emerge, both within treatment type and across age groups. For example, it is expected that speech-language services will be used by larger proportions of children at younger ages, while psychotropic medication will be used by larger proportions of children at older ages. Trends will be examined according to the ages at which parents stop using select treatment types and start using others.
Conclusions: Results of this study will facilitate understanding of when and how long parents implement different types of ASD treatments. In addition to potentially enhancing treatment planning, results of this study will also provide the foundation for future studies, such as investigating the influence of early treatment utilization on long-term phenotypic presentation.
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