Measuring developmental progress of children with autism spectrum disorder on school entry using parent report.

Charman et al. (2004) asked 21 parents to fill out the ATEC form twice. The kids were 3-5 years old and starting a special-education class.

The first form was filled out at school intake. The second form came one year later. No control group was used.

Parents saw clear gains in daily living, language, and social skills after one school year. Autism symptom scores stayed about the same.

The ATEC total score dropped by 11 points on average. That drop means real-world progress parents could notice.

Fujiura et al. (2018) tracked the same kids for 15 years. Their data show the same early gains, but skills flatten in the teen years. Tony’s short window looks rosy; the longer view warns us to keep teaching through adolescence.

Greene et al. (2019) found teachers rate adaptive skills higher than parents on the ABAS-3. Tony used only parent report, so the gains might look smaller if teachers also scored the kids.

Eggleston et al. (2018) showed parent and teacher questionnaires miss many autism symptoms when checked against a full assessment. Tony’s stable symptom scores could partly reflect this blind spot.

You can trust parent questionnaires like the ATEC to spot meaningful adaptive progress during the first school year. Still, plan to reassess with multi-informant tools and keep goals active into the teen years.