Validity and reliability of the Thai version of the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist: A two-phase diagnostic accuracy study

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Background: Thai version of the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (Thai-ATEC); a tool which has been developed for Thai parents and caregivers who have children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Approval for this study was first obtained from the appropriate Ethics Methods: committee and from the original Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) developers. This was a two-phase study. Phase 1 consisted of the forward-backward translation of the ATEC and phase 2 included the testing of psychometric properties, i.e. the validity and reliability of the final draft of the tool. The validity of the tool was assessed by comparing Thai-ATEC scores of parents and caregivers of 160 children with ASD with the assessment of a child and adolescent psychiatrist using DSM-V criteria on the same group of children. The inter-rater reliability of the tool was tested using a two-way model of intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for two-parent/caregivers' assessment of 50 children with ASD.The validity of the Thai-ATEC was moderate to high. A cut-off point of Results: ≤38 scores was used to distinguish between children with ASD with mild symptoms and the rest of the children (sensitivity = 94%, specificity= 61.9%, and the area under ROC curve = 90%). A cut-off point of ≥68 scores was used to distinguish between children with ASD with a severe degree of symptoms and the rest (sensitivity = 94%, specificity = 62.8%, area under receiver operating characteristic curve = 85%). The inter-rater reliability was very strong (ICC = 0.97).The Thai-ATEC has moderate to high validity and high reliability. Conclusions

How are parental mental health and parenting practices associated with externalizing behaviors among young children with autism in China? A cross‐sectional study and indirect effect analysis

“…Total score ranges from 0 to 179, with lower scores indicating fewer autism symptoms. Research has demonstrated adequate internal consistency (α = 0.75–0.79) of the Chinese version of ATEC (Fang et al, 2019; Sunakarach & Kessomboon, 2018). However, the ATEC is designed to detect treatment benefits, rather than rate autism severity.…”

Long‐term effects of transcranial direct current stimulation in the treatment of autism spectrum disorder: A randomized controlled trial

“…Four additional treatment outcome domains were assessed using the validity and reliability of the Thai version of the ATEC, 13 which can be scored to assess four domains: (1) language/communication skills; (2) social skills; (3) sensory and cognitive awareness skills; and (4) health/physical/behaviour problems. A lower score on any ATEC scale represents better function in the domain assessed.…”

“…Four additional treatment outcome domains were assessed using the validity and reliability of the Thai version of the ATEC, 13 which can be scored to assess four domains: (…”

Detection of Electroencephalographic Abnormalities and Its Associated Factors among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Thailand

“…The parents of the children with ASD were interviewed by a multidisciplinary medical team to assess the ASD severity using the Thai Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (Thai-ATEC) assessment tool [ 29 ] that includes 4 subscales: (1) Speech/language/communication (14 items); (2) sociability (20 items); (3) sensory/cognitive awareness (18 items); and (4) health/physical/behavior (25 items). The Thai-ATEC total scores ranged from 0–179 with maximum scores on the subscales of 28 (speech/language/communication), 40 (sociability), 36 (sensory/cognitive awareness), and 75 (health/physical/behavior).…”