Title : The clinical features of children with autism spectrum disorder in India
Abstract:
Ng the children’s sex and age and the children’s parents’ age and education level, when a diagnosis was determined. We also studied clinical features, including the child’s age at the time of early alert signs and at diagnosis, the core alert sign and symptom(s) at diagnosis, and the presence and severity of ASD comorbidities. Of the 180 children involved in this study, 90 were boys (72.5%) and 90 were girls (27.50%). The mean age (SD) at early alert signs and diagnosis was 1.8 (SD =.78) and 7.83 (SD = 3.4) years. According to the children’s parents, 54% reported communication disorders as the main alert sign, while 62% noted these disorders were the main symptom of their child’s ASD. Behavioral and interaction disorders were the other most common characteristics parents identified. The core symptoms of ASD were correlated with epilepsy (p =.027), cerebral palsy (p =.026), and hearing impairment (p =.045). The main clinical features of all 180 children were as follows: delays in diagnosis and speech co-occurring with epilepsy and a hearing impairment. Taken together, they indicate the severity of ASD in India.
