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ABSTRACT
Background The aim of this project was to examine parent perceptions of potential communicative acts (PCAs) of children with, or at risk for, autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Methods Participants were 6 males ranging from 17 to 30 months of age. Behaviours of interest were compared using parent report taken from the Inventory of Potential Communication Acts (IPCA) and videotaped observation collected during the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – Second Edition (ADOS-2 Toddler Module). PCA verification categories included facial expression, eye gaze, vocalisation, challenging behaviour, body movement, stereotypic movement, imitation, or symbolic forms.
Results On average, 83% of PCA categories coded from the ADOS-2 videotapes were also reported by parents using the IPCA questionnaire. For half of the participants, parent report added PCA information beyond what was collected during standard observation.
Conclusions Results suggest that parent report questionnaires are viewed as a complement to information obtained from standard observation.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Annie O’Brien for completing reliability coding, and Travis Threats, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Saint Louis University, for establishing supports for student research participation. We acknowledge Filip Loncke, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, for his earlier review of this project. Portions of this research were presented at the Clinical Augmentative and Alternative Communication Research Conference at Fontbonne University, St Louis, MO, USA, in September, 2014, and at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, Orlando, FL, USA, in November, 2014. We thank the parents and children for their participation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.