Abstract
Most internationally recognized instruments for the screening and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder have been developed in the USA, which calls into question the degree of their cultural adaptation to diverse populations. The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics of social communication in typically developing Croatian-speaking participants (N = 220) using ADOS-2-defined item-level normative values. Croatian subjects showed the expected (“typical”) results in the domain of verbal communication, slightly atpical results in nonverbal communication (primarily gesture use), and more significant deviations in pragmatics (offering and asking for information), relative to the expectations of the ADOS-2. As ADOS-2 has become an important component of thorough ASD diagnostic evaluations worldwide, identifying methods for increasing the cross-cultural validity is essential.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Professor Katarzyna Chawarska from Yale University for the continuous support and critical review of this paper. We would also like to thank our SLP students Karla Bajnštingel, Ivana Brčić, Valentina Herceg, Ružica Jukić, Kristina Kljunić, Lea Pepelko and Barbara Rinčić for their help in participant recruitment, technical support and gathering of data.
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Partial financial support was received from Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ: 93743 − 2014).
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Cepanec, M., Šimleša, S. Item-Based Analysis of Some ADOS-2 Items with Typically Developing Participants Might help Improve Cross-Cultural Validity of ADOS-2. J Autism Dev Disord 54, 109–120 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05791-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05791-w