Access to diagnosis and treatment services among latino children with autism spectrum disorders.
Latino children with autism still get diagnosed later and receive fewer services than White peers—close the gap with bilingual outreach.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Byers et al. (2013) compared Latino and White children with autism. They looked at who got diagnosed first and who got more specialty help.
The team used parent surveys and service records. They asked about diagnosis age, therapy hours, and unmet needs.
What they found
Latino kids were diagnosed later. They also received fewer specialty services like speech and ABA.
Parents of Latino children reported more unmet needs. The gap stayed even when kids had the same level of autism symptoms.
How this fits with other research
Nijs et al. (2016) extends this finding. They showed the Latino-White gap stays even when kids have severe autism. Same kids, same need, still less help.
Brynskov et al. (2017) puts a number on the delay. Venezuelan Latino families waited about three years after first worry to get the autism label. Byers et al. (2013) saw the same pattern in U.S. Latino families.
Rosales et al. (2021) explains why. Latino parents told interviewers language barriers and low service awareness kept them out of ABA. These stories match the cold numbers in Byers et al. (2013).
Why it matters
If you serve Latino families, check your intake forms and flyers. Offer them in Spanish and use plain words. Ask parents if they know what ABA, speech, and OT are. One extra phone call in the family’s language can cut months off the wait for help.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There is greater identification of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and, as a result, more attention to specialty services to address the challenges children with ASD face. Along with the growth in identification of ASD is a growth in the population of Latino children, yet there is some evidence that disparities exist in diagnosis and services between Latino and non-Latino White children. This study further documents these disparities and investigates the mechanisms that may contribute to them. Diagnosis and specialty services were compared between 48 Latino and 56 non-Latino White children diagnosed with ASD, and factors that contribute to differences are explored. Results show that Latino children were diagnosed almost one year later than White children, received fewer specialty services, and had higher unmet service needs. Factors that accounted for differences in the number of services received were maternal level of education and the number of sources of knowledge about autism. Findings suggest that service providers need to work to provide greater awareness and knowledge about autism, and make services more accessible to Latino families.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-51.3.141