Toward the use of a standardized assessment for young children with autism: current assessment practices in the UK.
Most autistic children in the UK still start school without standard scores, so we have no objective way to track their progress.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Martin et al. (2003) mailed a short survey to special-education heads across the UK.
They asked one question: did the last 75 autistic children placed in your school receive any standard test before or after starting class?
The team counted how many kids got proper baseline scores and later follow-ups.
What they found
Only six out of ten children had any standard score on file before school began.
One in three had no test at all.
After placement, only nine percent were re-tested to see if they were learning.
How this fits with other research
Dai et al. (2023) later asked 303 Chinese families and found a six-month wait from diagnosis to help.
Their data extend the UK picture: missing tests are a global problem, not just a British one.
Siklos et al. (2007) saw the same gap in Canada. Parents there waited three years and saw four different doctors before anyone gave a firm diagnosis.
Together the three surveys show a steady pattern: kids move through school with almost no hard numbers to guide them.
Why it matters
Without baseline scores you cannot show parents, funders, or inspectors that a child is gaining skills.
You also risk keeping ineffective programs in place.
Start small: pick one normed tool—VB-MAPP, PEP-3, or AFLS—and give it to every new learner this month. Schedule a re-test in six months. One sheet of numbers beats years of guesswork.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Little is known about the progress of autistic children following specific interventions in England. Nor do we know how frequently standardized assessments are used to monitor progress or to evaluate specific educational interventions. The reports of 75 children with autism, for whom special educational provision had been determined by a local education authority, were reviewed. Parents were interviewed and educational psychologists were contacted for details of any norm-referenced assessments. Of these children, 39 percent had no standardized assessments before education authorities determined their provision, and only 9 percent had follow-up assessments that could be used to evaluate progress. Children with autism in the UK rarely have sufficient assessments to allow an objective evaluation of their progress. There is currently no standardized assessment protocol to prescribe a specific educational intervention, to evaluate the progress of children or to make comparisons between interventions. We recommend the development of such a protocol.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2003 · doi:10.1177/1362361303007003007