Browsing by Author "Leppälahti, Eija"

Autism spectrum is neurodevelopmental characteristic, the central feature of which is an abnormality in interaction of the person with other people and their environment. Mild autism spectrum is not associated with a significant delay in linguistic–cognitive development. Mild autism spectrum is often detected later than a more severe autism spectrum, or it may not be detected at all, which can weaken the well-being of both families and individuals on the autism spectrum. Delaying intervention can weaken intervention results and require more health-care resources than early intervention. In Finland, speech therapists perform a developmental assessment in which the increased probability of autism spectrum disorder is identified. However, there are no official recommendations for detecting mild autism spectrum, so there may be differences in practices. In this study, detection practices for mild autism spectrum in speech therapy are ascertained. The research was carried out as a survey, which was fully answered by 20 and partially (at least six answers) by ten speech therapists. In particular, the survey investigated the structure and resources of the service system, the availability and use of high-quality screening methods and the clinical competence and the experiences of speech therapists. The data were analysed by creating graphs, cross-tabulation and assessing percentages. The answers to the open questions were tabulated and themes were searched for in the answers using colour coding and tabulation. Detection of mild autism spectrum takes place in different medical units. Most typically, children under school age were taken to the speech therapist's assessment with a referral from the counseling center, but often in mild autism spectrum, early detection was not even attempted. Speech therapists make an extensive overall assessment using various of methods. The use of standardized autism spectrum screening methods was quite low. The clinical symptoms were stressed the most in the conclusions of assessment. Differences were observed between both service structures and professionals. Of the individual factors, age, other possible disorders, language and cultural background, and the severity of the autism spectrum affect the detection process. The speech therapists felt that they had received information about the special features of detecting mild autism spectrum to varying degrees. The themes of the speech therapists' experiences were multidisciplinary, practical methods of operation and observations, and diagnostic challenges. Efforts should be made to unify the practices of speech therapists, and the goal should be early detection of mild autism spectrum. More attention should be paid to the mild autism spectrum in girls. However, the extensive assessment of development by speech therapists contributes to the detection of key rehabilitation needs.