Informant Discrepancies in the Assessment of Adaptive Behavior of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Teachers will score adaptive behavior higher than parents on the ABAS-3 for autistic kids without ID—always plan to reconcile the gap.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the ABAS-3 to 61 autistic kids .
Parents and teachers filled out the same form.
All kids had average IQ and no intellectual disability.
What they found
Teachers scored adaptive behavior higher than parents on every key area.
The gap was biggest in daily living and practical skills.
No child trait explained the difference.
How this fits with other research
Muller et al. (2022) shows why parents may rate lower. They found parents with more autism-like traits over-report symptoms.
Kalyva (2010) saw the same low parent-teacher match for social skills in Asperger's.
Eggleston et al. (2018) warns both parents and teachers miss many autism signs when they work alone.
Together these papers say: collect both views, then reconcile them.
Why it matters
When you test an autistic child, expect the teacher form to look rosier than the parent form. Plan extra time to ask each adult for real-life examples. Use the gap as a guide for where to probe deeper in your interview.
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Join Free →After scoring the ABAS-3, circle every item where parent and teacher differ by 2 or more points and ask each adult for a recent real-life example.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study examined informant discrepancies for parent and teacher adaptive behavior ratings of 103 children, ages 6-12 years, with ASD (without intellectual disability). Scores on the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System, third edition (Harrison and Oakland, Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, 2015) General Adaptive Composite (GAC) and practical, social, and conceptual domains were examined for mean differences, level of agreement, and moderators of difference scores between informant groups. Teacher scores were significantly higher (indicating better functioning) than parents for the GAC and practical domain. Parent and teacher scores were moderately correlated and Bland-Altman plots and regression analyses revealed no systematic differences in parent-teacher agreement across the range of scores. None of the tested variables moderated the parent-teacher difference scores. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2019 · doi:10.1007/s10803-018-03876-z