Age of diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in Latino children: The case of Venezuelan children.
Latino children face a three-year autism diagnosis delay after parents first worry.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doctors looked at 103 Venezuelan children with autism. They asked parents when they first worried about their child. Then they checked when the child finally got the autism diagnosis.
The team wanted to see how long Latino families wait compared to other groups.
What they found
Parents first noticed signs around age 24 months. But the official autism label came at 60 months. That is a 36-month gap.
Three full years passed between first worry and diagnosis.
How this fits with other research
Barton et al. (2019) found Black children in the US also wait years longer for autism services. This shows the Venezuelan delay is part of a bigger pattern.
Rosales et al. (2021) interviewed Latino families and learned why. Language barriers and not knowing services exist keep families stuck. These interviews explain the 36-month gap.
Blacher et al. (2013) seems to clash. They found Latino mothers stay positive about their child despite delays. The wait is real, yet families stay resilient. Both facts can be true.
Why it matters
If you serve Latino families, expect they may arrive three years late. Build in extra screening questions and parent education. Offer materials in Spanish and ask about first worry date so you can triage faster.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one question to intake: 'When did you first worry about your child?' Fast-track families who answer 'over a year ago.'
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Latino children are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder later in life, usually with more severe symptoms, and lower IQs, compared with non-Latino children. Possible reasons for such disparities could be due to lower levels of parent education, lower socioeconomic status, limited knowledge of parents about autism spectrum disorder, and diminished health-care knowledge. The goal of the study was to describe the age of parental concerns and at first autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, and factors associated with age at the first diagnosis in a sample of Venezuelan children. Diagnostic and demographic data were collected from 103 children between 2 and 7 years of age. Although the mean age of first concerns was 17 months, the age of diagnosis varied from 53.03 months for the Pervasive Developmental Disorders-Not Otherwise specified group to 54.38 months for the autism group. Although parents were aware of developmental difficulties before the second year of life, their children were diagnosed 36 months later. In Latin cultures, behavior problems are usually attributed to poor parenting skills, so parents might take longer to seek professional help. A better understanding of cultural influences on age of diagnosis will translate to quicker use of services independent of ethnicity.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2017 · doi:10.1177/1362361317701267