Early Indicators of Infants Later Diagnosed with Autism: Psychometric Properties of a Screening Tool, the Infant Motor and Engagement Scale
Event Type
Presentation
Start Date
12-1-2023 9:00 AM
End Date
12-1-2023 12:00 PM
Description
Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Infant Motor and Engagement Scale (IMES), a screener developed to identify early indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in infants 6 to 9 months old.
Methods: We utilized the IMES to analyze archived home videos of infants who were typically developing (n=9) and infants who were later diagnosed with autism (n=1). Due to small sample sizes, we were unable to compare the two groups. However, we refined the operational definitions of items on the IMES and participated in intensive training to reliably code the IMES.
Results: The average percentage of agreement within the IMES’ 36 items for each infant (n=10) was 88.3 percent for the blinded student researchers after training by our principal investigator.
Conclusions: From this small pilot retrospective study, we made recommendations to guide future prospective studies using the IMES, which include extensive training recommendations and slight modification to the IMES.
Recommended Citation
Flanagan, J., Bhamani, K., Brion, A., Heiss, H., Ortiz, T., & Taft, C. (2023), Early Indicators of Infants Later Diagnosed with Autism: Psychometric Properties of a Screening Tool, the Infant Motor and Engagement Scale, Presentation, Tenth Annual Research Colloquium, https://nsuworks.nova.edu/ot_colloquium/Tenth/events/7
Early Indicators of Infants Later Diagnosed with Autism: Psychometric Properties of a Screening Tool, the Infant Motor and Engagement Scale
Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Infant Motor and Engagement Scale (IMES), a screener developed to identify early indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in infants 6 to 9 months old.
Methods: We utilized the IMES to analyze archived home videos of infants who were typically developing (n=9) and infants who were later diagnosed with autism (n=1). Due to small sample sizes, we were unable to compare the two groups. However, we refined the operational definitions of items on the IMES and participated in intensive training to reliably code the IMES.
Results: The average percentage of agreement within the IMES’ 36 items for each infant (n=10) was 88.3 percent for the blinded student researchers after training by our principal investigator.
Conclusions: From this small pilot retrospective study, we made recommendations to guide future prospective studies using the IMES, which include extensive training recommendations and slight modification to the IMES.