Parent concerns: Differentiating developmental diagnoses in young children.

Piwowarczyk et al. (2020) asked parents of preschoolers what worried them. The kids later received one of six diagnoses: autism, ADHD, developmental delay, language disorder, global delay, or typical development.

The team compared the early parent concerns to the final diagnosis. They wanted to see if mom-and-dad worries match the real diagnostic criteria.

Parents talked about different problems for different kids. Autism parents often mentioned social and sensory issues. ADHD parents flagged hyperactivity and attention.

The worries lined up with the official DSM checklists. In short, parent concerns were a cheap, early screen that pointed the right direction.

Rivard et al. (2023) extends this idea. They used test scores instead of parent words and still found three clear profiles among kids with suspected neurodevelopmental disorders. Both studies say: group kids by pattern, not just label.

Némorin et al. (2025) looked only at new autism cases. They added adaptive and behavior data to DSM symptoms and found four autism sub-types. Anna’s parent-concern method is faster; Harmony’s method is deeper. Use the quick one first, then dig in if needed.

Dolezal et al. (2010) seems to disagree. They split kids with intellectual disability by IQ and adaptive scores, but the groups showed no difference in problem behaviors. The takeaway: parent concerns capture real-life symptoms better than cold test numbers.

You can save hours. Start every preschool intake with a short parent-concern checklist. If social-sensory worries top the list, probe for autism. If hyperactivity dominates, probe for ADHD. Let the family words steer your next formal tool.