ABSTRACT
A shortage of board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatricians generates a bottleneck for children and families who seek autism diagnostic services. Wait time for autism evaluation commonly exceeds a year. To improve access, clinicians developed a coordinated Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and Pediatric Neurology autism diagnostic pathway. For a subset of children referred to neurology clinic, pediatric neurologists completed the medical part of an autism evaluation and Knights of Columbus Developmental Center psychologists or speech-language pathologists completed developmental assessments. Forty-four autism diagnostic evaluations completed through this coordinated pathway over the course of six months had shortened wait time [mean=50.89 days; range 3 to 184 days; median= 48.50 day]. Parents reported satisfaction with the autism evaluation and resources navigation process. Sustainability and scalability efforts are discussed.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder , Neurology , Pediatrics , Humans , Child , Pediatrics/methods , Pediatrics/standards , Neurology/methods , Autistic Disorder/diagnosis , Child, Preschool , Male , Female , Health Services Accessibility/standards , AdolescentABSTRACT
Sugar is often used in learning and conditioning studies as an unconditioned stimulus (US) to enhance liking for a flavor mixed with it. To use sugar as a US, participants are selected only if they like the taste of sugar based on their ratings of a sweetened water US during a preexposure trial prior to experimental procedures. This US-only trail introduces a potential sensory bias and can lead to participant attrition when such a trial is conducted the day prior to experimental procedures. The aim of the present study was to construct a brief scale, called the Estimated Daily Intake Scale for Sugar (EDIS-S), to measure a participant's exposure to sugar in their diet. It was hypothesized that exposure to sugar would be positively correlated with liking for sugar. As expected, an 11-item EDIS-S was reliable and significantly correlated with ratings of liking for a sweetened taste solution. Implications for the use of the EDIS-S as an assessment in many areas of research, and as a participant selection tool for conditioning studies are discussed.