A major obstacle in autism research has been the lack of a valid means of measuring the effectiveness of various treatments. Over the years, researchers have published hundreds of studies attempting to evaluate different biomedical and psycho-educational interventions intended to benefit autistic children. Much of this research produced inconclusive or, worse, misleading results, because there are no useful tests or scales designed to measure treatment effectiveness.
Bernard Rimland and Stephen M. Edelson of the Autism Research Institute developed The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) to fill this need.
The ATEC online assessment checklist asks parents a series of multiple choice questions. Parents can respond about whether a given symptom is a problem for their child and, if so, how frequent or severe the issue is.
At the end of the assessment, parents will be given a numerical rating… the higher the number, the more severe the autism symptoms.
A child who is old enough to be talking and potty trained, and is not might be considered in the more strongly impacted range and score near 100.
A child who is potty trained, talking, and in a mainstream school with an IEP and a pull-out for special education might be considered “high functioning” and have an ATEC score closer to 40. Often these kids have issues like sensory processing problems, trouble with social connections, inflexibility, hyperfocus on certain topics, or issues with body awareness and coordination.
You can find the ATEC online at https://www.autism.org/treatment-ratings-for-autism/.
This article is an excerpt from the Pathway to HOPE Resource Guide. To purchase your copy (Oakland County, MI residents pay only S&H thanks to a grant from United Way of Southeast Michigan and from Oakland County government), visit https://healingcomplexkids.org/product/2021-pathway-to-hope-resource-guide/.