Increasing Access to Developmental Services for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Pediatric Developmental Passport Pilot Randomized Trial

Elizabeth Young; Ramanan Aiyadurai; Thivia Jegathesan; Catherine Brown; Nicole Bechard; Ripudaman S Minhas; Karen Dillon; Jonathon Maguire

doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04199-3

Increasing Access to Developmental Services for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Pediatric Developmental Passport Pilot Randomized Trial

J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 Dec;49(12):4867-4876. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04199-3.

Authors

Elizabeth Young^{1

2

3

4}, Ramanan Aiyadurai^{5

6}, Thivia Jegathesan^{5

7

8}, Catherine Brown^{9

10}, Nicole Bechard^{9

11}, Ripudaman S Minhas^{9

5

12}, Karen Dillon¹³, Jonathon Maguire^{9

5

12

8

14

15}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. younge@smh.ca.
² Pediatrics, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada. younge@smh.ca.
³ Division of Developmental Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. younge@smh.ca.
⁴ Pediatric Ambulatory Clinics, 61 Queen St. East, 2nd Floor, Toronto, ON, M5C 2T2, Canada. younge@smh.ca.
⁵ Pediatrics, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁶ University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, UK.
⁷ School of Graduate Studies, Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁸ Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁹ Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
¹² Division of Developmental Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹³ Children's Treatment Network of Simcoe York, Richmond Hill, ON, Canada.
¹⁴ Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁵ Institute for Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

PMID: 31485815
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-019-04199-3

Abstract

The pediatric developmental passport was created to aid service navigation for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A pilot-randomized-control trial was conducted at two developmental clinics. The intervention group received the Passport card versus the control group who received the placebo card. Primary outcome was the proportion of families who contacted ASD services 1-year following diagnosis. Of 40 families, 95% in the intervention group contacted services versus 70% in the control (p = 0.04). All families at the academic site contacted services; at the community site 90% in the intervention group contacted versus 40% in the control (p = 0.02). The Passport shows promise aiding families of children with ASD in service navigation, particularly at community clinics where specialist follow-up is not readily available.

Keywords: Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) services; Autism spectrum disorders; Caregiver support services (CSS); Service navigation.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Autism Spectrum Disorder / rehabilitation
Autism Spectrum Disorder / therapy*
Behavior Therapy / methods*
Caregivers / education
Caregivers / psychology
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Humans
Male
Parents / education
Parents / psychology
Patient Education as Topic / methods*
Patient Participation / methods*

Grants and funding

St. Michaels Hospital Association Innovation Fund 12-014 & 15-015/Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care