Order out of chaos? Autism spectrum disorder coordinators’ impact on service delivery in New Zealand

Eggleston, Matthew; Eggleston, Katherine; Thabrew, Hiran; Hennig, Shannon; Frampton, Christopher

doi:10.1177/10398562211009249

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Additionally, few coordinators were involved in navigating post diagnostic support (Thabrew & Eggleston, 2018). In a survey of 205 516 Aotearoa New Zealand parents conducted by Eggleston et al (2021), those who had access to an autism coordinator post diagnosis expressed greater satisfaction with autism support services. However, over half of families surveyed (58.7%) had not seen an autism coordinator (Eggleston et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a survey of 205 516 Aotearoa New Zealand parents conducted by Eggleston et al (2021), those who had access to an autism coordinator post diagnosis expressed greater satisfaction with autism support services. However, over half of families surveyed (58.7%) had not seen an autism coordinator (Eggleston et al, 2021). This implies a need for greater consistency in referrals to autism coordinators, as well as a greater focus on post diagnostic support.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Barriers, Facilitators, and Adaptations to Autism Support Services for Lower Income Aotearoa New Zealand Families

Wallace-Watkin

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Classified as a form of neurodivergence, autism is recognised as consisting of differences in sensory and cognitive processing, social interactions, and preferences for routine and structure. Research suggests that the provision of autism early support services is associated with a range of beneficial outcomes for autistic children and their whānau (family). Ideally, the needs of each individual family and child would dictate access to such support services. However, lower financially resourced families with an autistic child appear to face several barriers to receiving support services. Literature examining the adaptation of pre-existing early autism supports to address disparities in access and participation is limited. Utilisation of methods such as research-community partnerships to inform such adaptations is also rare. More research is needed to understand the barriers and facilitative factors lower financially resourced families may experience when seeking to access and/or participate in autism support services for their autistic child. Such research may then inform the adaptation of autism support services to increase accessibility, and therefore improve equity within autism service systems.The present thesis consists of three empirical studies. Study 1 assessed the barriers and facilitators Aotearoa New Zealand parents reported experiencing when accessing and/or participating in support services for their autistic child. Study 2 utilised a research-community partnership approach to explore the experiences of five lower financially resourced Aotearoa New Zealand parents who had accessed an autism support service, the Early Start Denver Model. Results informed the development of a set of adaptations to improve the accessibility of this service. Study 3 consisted of piloting the adapted support programme with one lower financially resourced whānau (family). Study 1 results suggested that lower income families experienced a significantly greater number of barriers, and experienced those barriers to a greater extent, than families who were higher income. The results of study 2 identified several facilitative factors and barriers to the Early Start Denver Model programme, with both parents and community partners providing a broad range of ideas for possible adaptations. Results from study 3 suggest that adaptations to support services which target the needs of lower financially resourced families may indeed be useful for improving accessibility of such services.Collectively, the results of these studies indicate that lower financially resourced families experience a range of barriers to autism support services for their children, but also several facilitative factors. Both parents and providers have ideas of ways in which service access and participation could be improved. Through applying such ideas to the adaptation of pre-existing early autism support services, it appears as though accessibility of such programmes may be improved for lower financially resourced. Future research further examining the impacts of adapted services on autistic children and their whānau would be beneficial.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers, Facilitators, and Adaptations to Autism Support Services for Lower Income Aotearoa New Zealand Families

Wallace-Watkin

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Variation in morpho-lexical development within and between diagnoses in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Foster‐Cohen

Macrae²,

Newbury³

2023

Front. Psychol.

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While primary diagnosis is only one aspect of the presentation of a child with neurodevelopmental delay/disorder, the degree to which early expressive language reflects diagnostic divisions must be understood in order to reduce the risk of obscuring clinically important differences and similarities across diagnoses. We present original data from the New Zealand MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (NZCDI) from 88 English-speaking children aged 2;6 to 5;6 years receiving multidisciplinary intervention within a single family-centered program. The children had one of six pediatrician-assigned genetic or behaviorally determined diagnoses: Down syndrome (DS); motor disorders (cerebral palsy and developmental coordination disorder); global development delay; disorders of relating and communicating (R&C); other genetically defined diagnoses; or language delay due to premature (PREM) birth. Morphological and lexical development were compared within and across diagnostic groups, using both data visualization and mixed-effects modeling. Groups varied in the amount of variation within and between them, but only prematurity reached significance, in interaction with age, as a predictor of morpho-lexical scores. Further analysis of longitudinal data available from a subset of the sample (n = 62) suggested that individual trajectories of vocabulary growth could not be reliably predicted by diagnosis. Moreover, the distribution of word types (nouns, predicates, etc.) only distinguished PREM children with language delay from those with DS and those in the R&C group. There were strong similarities in early morpho-lexical development across these clinical populations, with some differences. These findings align with research and clinical approaches which accommodate individual variation within diagnosis, and broad similarities across diagnostic groups.

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Order out of chaos? Autism spectrum disorder coordinators’ impact on service delivery in New Zealand

Cited by 2 publications

References 11 publications

Barriers, Facilitators, and Adaptations to Autism Support Services for Lower Income Aotearoa New Zealand Families

Barriers, Facilitators, and Adaptations to Autism Support Services for Lower Income Aotearoa New Zealand Families

Variation in morpho-lexical development within and between diagnoses in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

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