Abstract

Increasing rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and younger age at diagnosis pose a challenge to preschool intervention systems. In Sweden, most young autistic children receive intervention service in community-based preschool programs, but no tool is yet available to assess the quality of the preschool learning environment. This study adapted the Autism Program Environment Rating Scale Preschool/Elementary to Swedish community context (APERS-P-SE). Following translation and a multistep modification process, independent experts rated the content validity of the adaptation. Findings indicate high cross-cultural validity of the adapted APERS-P-SE. The cultural adaption process of the APERS-P-SE highlights similarities and differences between the American and Swedish preschool systems and their impact on early ASD intervention.

Highlights

  • The rates of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have increased considerably in the last two decades, with current estimates ranging between 1 and 3% in high income countries (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2018; Idring et al 2015)

  • Content Validity Index (CVI) was calculated in accordance with established recommendations (Rubio et al 2003), based on the 4-point Likert scale scores described in the previous section

  • Few countries have a higher percentage of children attending preschool than Sweden (NCES 2017), there is no assessment of the quality of programs delivered in preschools for children with ASD

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Summary

Introduction

The rates of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have increased considerably in the last two decades, with current estimates ranging between 1 and 3% in high income countries (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2018; Idring et al 2015). The Autism Program Environment Rating Scale-Preschool/Elementary School (APERS) is a rating scale that the U.S National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder (NPDC) (Odom et al 2013) designed to assess program quality for children and youth with ASD attending preschool and primary school. In the NPDC professional development work, the APERS was used in 132 school intervention programs in 12 states in the USA (Odom et al 2013), and it has been used in Poland, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh From their studies in the United States, Odom et al (2018) reported the instrument to show high internal consistency (Cronbach Alphas > .94) for the total scale and moderate consistency for its subdomains (Cronbach Alphas averaging .70). The instrument demonstrated sensitivity to improvements in intervention setting quality following professional development provided to teachers in schools

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