Developmental Patterns in Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Preschool Children

Background: Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) encompass an inclusive group of conditions that appear during the developmental period but continue to persist in adulthood, ranging from particular difficulties to a global impairment of social, cognitive, and emotional functioning. The developmental trajectories associated with these conditions are highly heterogeneous. This study aimed to analyze and compare developmental and adaptive profiles of preschool-aged children with different NDDs to better characterize their developmental trajectories. Methods: We analyzed data from the initial global evaluation of 196 children with NDDs (aged 20 to 71 months), enrolled in three subgroups: 108 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 52 with language disorder (LD), and 36 with mixed specific developmental disorder (MSDD). A comprehensive neuropsychiatric evaluation was performed using standardized tools (Griffiths-III, ADOS-2, VABS-II, and ADI-R), and the parents completed the DP-3 and the CBCL 1 1/2 -5. Results: Our results showed that all NDDs exhibited poor psychomotor skills, with children with ASD being the most impaired, although their profiles were comparable to those of MSDD in communication and motor areas. CBCL's pervasive developmental problem scale has been shown to provide relevant information for distinguishing children with ASD. Furthermore, DP-3 and VABS-II measure highly differentiated developmental profiles of each diagnostic group. Conclusions: Our results highlighted the importance of including parents'/caregivers' perspectives in defining children's functioning and the possibility of using DP-3 as a screening tool for different neurodevelopmental disorders.