Brief report: pilot investigation of service receipt by young children with autistic spectrum disorders.

McLennan et al. (2008) phoned 64 Canadian families who had a preschooler with autism.

They asked which services the child used: speech, psychology, genetics, any therapy.

The goal was to see if kids got the checks that guidelines say they need.

Almost every child saw a speech-language pathologist.

Fewer than half had the advised psychological or genetic tests.

The gap was big even though families wanted help.

Chou et al. (2007) saw the same speech-therapy boom in North Carolina one year earlier.

van Timmeren et al. (2016) later repeated the survey across the whole U.S. and still found low behavior-therapy use, proving the gap lasts.

Chee et al. (2017) widened the lens to all ages in Canada and showed unmet needs grow as kids get older, so the preschool miss is just the start.

If the psychological work-up never happens, you may miss a co-occurring condition that changes your plan.

Check your client’s file for missing genetics or mental-health referrals and flag them at the next team meeting.