A large survey has revealed a concerning difference in terms of response from a provider for children’s health. The survey found that parents with autistic children received a passive response from provider when they raise concerns with regard to children’s development.

However, such was not the case with parents whose children showed signs of developmental delay. Katharine Zuckerman from Doembecher Children's Hospital at Oregon Health and Sciences University said that they adjusted corvarities.

After adjusting them, they noticed that parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) had 14% fewer proactive response than parents of children with intellectual or developmental disorder.

The study researchers have defined proactive responses include ‘discuss concerns with child’s school’, ‘carrying out developmental tests’ and ‘specialist referral made’. On the other hand, passive responses include, ‘child might grow out of it’, ‘it is too early to say that something is wrong’ and ‘nothing is wrong with child and his behavior is normal’.

It has been found that parents of children with ASD had 30% more passive provider responses to their concerns in comparison to parents of children with IDD/ DD. Another staggering revelation is parents of children who finally get diagnosed with ASD have raised concerns to their providers earlier than children with IDD/DD.

“Each proactive response to parents' concerns was associated with a reduction in the mean delay between first conversation and ASD diagnosis by at least 1 year”, said the authors.

The researchers said that this delay in diagnosis was reduced to almost 1 year if the child had ASD also having IDD/DD. Study authors have assessed data from 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services questionnaire with regard to ‘children with special healthcare needs’.

The researchers said providers need more training to judge the early signs of ASD and what should be next steps.