By Janice Wood Associate News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 29, 2012
Hispanic children often have undiagnosed developmental delays, according to new research that also found that large numbers of all children who were first thought to have developmental delays actually had autism.
Our study raises concerns about access to accurate, culturally relevant information regarding developmental milestones and the importance of early detection and treatment, said Virginia Chaidez, Ph.D., the lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in the University of California Davis when the study was conducted.
Autism and developmental delay tend to go undiagnosed when parents are not aware of the signs to look for, and the conditions are often misdiagnosed when parents dont have access to adequate developmental surveillance and screening.
The researchers used data from the Childhood Autism Risk from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) Study, a population-based study of factors that increase the risks for autism or developmental delay.
The study included 1,061 children living in California who were between 24 and 60 months of age. They were divided into three groups: Children with autism, children with developmental delay but not autism, and children with typical development.
The evaluations of Hispanic children were conducted by bilingual clinicians in Spanish or English, depending on the primary language used at home.
The results for children with at least one Hispanic parent of any race were then compared to the results for children of non-Hispanic white parents.
The comparison revealed more similarities than differences in terms of autism profiles, including diagnostic scores, language function, whether or not children lost acquired skills, and overall intellectual, social and physical functioning, according to the researchers.
However, the researchers did find that 6.3 percent of Hispanic children enrolled in the study who were selected randomly out of the general population met criteria for developmental delay, compared with only 2.4 percent of non-Hispanic participants, which is the expected percentage.
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Developmental Delays, Autism Often Missed in Hispanic Children