Introduction
Personal narratives are defined as descriptions of past events by the speaker. They make up about 50% of children’s everyday conversations and proficiency is critical for socio-emotional wellbeing. Although challenges in social communication is one of the core characteristics of autism, little research has focused on the personal narrative skills of school-age children on the spectrum.

Aim(s)
This study examined if there were differences in personal narrative performance between young school-age children on the spectrum and their neurotypical peers on measures of coherence: context, chronology, and theme.

Methods
Participants were: 24 children with a diagnosis of autism (11 male/14 females); 14 children demonstrated a language disorder (Autism_LD: CELF-P2 Core Language SS<80); 11 children performed >SS80 (Autism_TL); 24 children without an autism diagnosis who did well at school (TD). All children produced personal narratives in response to the Westerveld & Gillon language sample protocol.

Results
Young school-age children on the spectrum struggled producing personal narratives compared to their age-matched peers without autism on all three measures of coherence.
When comparing the children in the Autism_TL group to their TD peers, there were no differences in context or theme, but chronology seemed particularly challenging, with 7/11 children in the Autism_TL group obtaining a score of 0 on chronology, compared to 4/24 children in the TD group.

Conclusions
Speech pathologists are encouraged to assess personal narratives routinely in school-age children on the spectrum. Personal narratives may be a valid ‘context’ for intervention, considering the importance of personal narrative proficiency for social interactions.

Keywords - Autism, personal narrative, language sample analysis

Submission Statement:
This study helps us reflect on the importance of personal narratives for social interactions. By reflecting on children’s personal narrative performance, and respecting each child’s individual communication goals and aspirations, speech pathologists can respond by individualising their interventions to help foster social interactions.

Introduction: Speech pathologists at entry level are expected to have obtained the knowledge, skills and training to provide ethical, evidence-based and strengths-focused services to autistic people and their families. However, the knowledge, competency and perceived confidence of graduates to work with autistic individuals in Australia is relatively unknown.

Aim: The aim of this project is to understand what Australian graduate speech pathologists learned during their university training, their level of experience in working with autistic individuals, their factual knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and experiences would have been beneficial in developing competence and confidence in this space.

Method: An original 20 item, cross-sectional online survey was developed to obtain data from Australian speech pathologists who graduated in 2021. Participants were recruited through social media advertisements and emails to university course coordinators to distribute to alumni.

Results: 57 graduate speech pathologists responded to the survey. Although most participants indicated that ASD was addressed at university, they had received some to very little content regarding autistic children and adolescents, and very little to no content regarding autistic adults. Participants felt most confident in working with autistic individuals of primary school age. Additionally, increased lecture and tutorial material, workshops and opportunity to work with autistic clients on placement would have been beneficial while at university.

Conclusions: Feedback from graduates suggests that Australian speech pathology students want further university training in supporting autistic individuals of all ages, specific assessment and intervention procedures and using neurodiversity affirming practices.

Keywords: autism, new graduates, training, knowledge, confidence, survey

Submission statement: The current study has encouraged graduates to self-reflect on their education and practice with autistic people. Information gathered from this reflective process encourages education providers to respond to the needs of graduates and students, to ultimately advance service quality and outcomes for autistic people.

Background: Receiving appropriate early supports for children on the autism spectrum is beneficial and dependent on accurate and timely identification. However, this is often thwarted by long waiting lists for face-to-face clinical services and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Telehealth has been introduced in many services as a way to continue clinical services. A number of tools including the Tele ASD Peds have been developed for use via telehealth in the identification of autism in young children. This study investigated the feasibility of integrating the Tele ASD Peds into a tertiary diagnostic and assessment service

Method. Eighteen children were assessed, with feedback provided by 10 parents via interview. Four cases are described here in detail in order to illustrate the use of the Tele ASD Peds in a tertiary assessment clinic using the DSM-5 as a diagnostic framework.

Results. Results demonstrated the Tele ASD Peds is a feasible assessment tool. Parent feedback regarding their experiences was broadly positive and included suggestions for improvements for future use of this tool.

Conclusion. It is possible to obtain useful information about a child’s autism-specific characteristics using the activities in the Tele ASD Peds and this information is consistent with and can be combined with clinical history from parents using the DSM-5 framework to provide a gold standard assessment.

Telepractice, Autism, Diagnosis, Preschool

Title
Communication intervention in paediatric autism: A scoping review from a clinical perspective

Introduction
Research translation is essential for effective clinical practice. Previous research has reported that speech pathologists perceive barriers to research translation (Foster et al., 2015; Harding et al., 2014). One barrier may be the lack of complete intervention descriptions in the speech pathology literature (Ludemann et al., 2017). The useability of intervention research for clinical practice warrants further exploration.

Aim
To identify the extant literature published on communication in children with autism aged 0-18 years and to identify the utility of this research for clinical practice.

Methods
A scoping review was conducted to investigate the replicability and translatability of autism communication research for Australian clinical speech pathologists, using the TIDieR checklist (Hoffmann et al., 2014). Stakeholder consultation interviews were undertaken with 13 speech pathologists working clinically in Australia with autistic children as part of this review.

Results
Data analysis revealed that only 3% (n=10) of included intervention studies (n=371) contained full intervention descriptions as per the 12-element TIDieR checklist.

Frequently omitted information included: intervention dosage (n=215, 58% of studies), intervention materials/resources (n=69, 19%) and intervention procedures (n=55, 15%).

Stakeholder consultation revealed that speech pathologists who provide autism intervention services are routinely adapting research to meet their clinical needs.

Conclusions
Clinically-reasoned adaptations/additions to peer-reviewed, published interventions are a necessary element of research translation. Clinical implications for the utilisation of best available research are considered.

Keywords: Research Translation, Evidence-based practice, Paediatric communication therapy, autism.

Submission Statement: Delegates will be asked to examine the TIDieR checklist and reflect on a time when research evidence was sought but the desired information was not obtained. Delegates will be asked to respond with a proposed solution to barriers. NB: barrier/solution checklist provided by the presenter to support this exercise.

Introduction: To successfully access the school curriculum students require adequate reading comprehension abilities, enabling them to derive meaning from texts across contexts. However, students on the autism spectrum have shown greater challenges in reading comprehension than their same-age peers.

Method: In-depth literacy assessments were completed with primary school-age children on the autism spectrum, including word decoding measures and receptive language at the word and sentence levels. We followed the Five-step Assessment to Intervention Process based on the Simple View of Reading as per Westerveld et al. (2020) to determine the reading profiles of this group.

Results: The York Assessment of Reading Comprehension was completed with 56 primary school-aged students on the autism spectrum. Overall, 40% of students presented with reading abilities within age expectations and 23% presented with specific word reading difficulties. Approximately half of all students showed reading comprehension difficulties. This was attributed to challenges in reading accuracy in 14%, suggesting mixed reading abilities. 18% of the participant group presented with specific comprehension difficulties, with reading comprehension and language comprehension scores (at the word or sentence level) below age expectations. Finally, only 5% of students who demonstrated reading comprehension difficulties performed within expectations for language comprehension and reading accuracy. These students were classified as showing non-specific reading comprehension difficulties.

Conclusion: Student reading profiles reflect the heterogeneity of this population. We will discuss the need for language and literacy profiling for students on the autism spectrum to inform targeted intervention to support reading comprehension and ultimately school success.

Background: Identification of autism can be challenging and time-consuming and depends on subjective assessment by trained clinicians. Early intervention is crucial for better outcomes, but late identification is common. An objective, automatic screening method may improve access to identification of autism and allow quicker pathways to support for autistic children and their families. Speech that differs in intonation patterns and other qualities that of non-autistic people is one diagnostic feature of autism and a promising contender for use as an objective marker in autism identification. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate whether autism can be identified by the sound of an individual’s voice, specifically, through the acoustic analysis of speech using machine-learning.
Method: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was used to guide the systematic review process, with a protocol published a priori.
Results: Seven papers were included in the review for analysis which involved 444 participants, with 225 autistic participants and 219 participants in comparison groups of non-autistic peers. Ages of the participants ranged from 6 months to 62 years. The studies analysed a diverse range of acoustic features, with measures of fundamental frequency representing pitch the most commonly employed. Overall, acoustic analysis of speech features by machine learning could predict autism diagnostic category with an accuracy ranging from 62 to 98% across participants aged between 6 months to 62 years.
Conclusion: This systematic review indicates that objective assessments of autism may have some potential use in supporting the identification of autism in child and adult populations. The potential benefits and drawbacks to the application of this type of technology in real world settings will be discussed.
KEY WORDS: autism, machine learning, acoustic analysis

Introduction: Many autistic children and their families experience difficulties around mealtimes possibly arising from a range of child-related characteristics and environmental factors.
Aim: This study examined the impact of three child-related factors (children’s autism characteristics, sensory needs, and feeding difficulties) on parents’ experiences of supporting their autistic children at mealtimes.
Methods: Participants were 80 children (5-12 years) with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and their caregivers. Caregivers completed an online survey examining (a) demographic characteristics, (b) their children’s autism characteristics (Social Communication Questionnaire; SCQ), (c) their children’s sensory needs (Sensory Profile 2–short form), (d) their children’s feeding difficulties (Behavioural Paediatrics Feeding Assessment Scale; BPFAS), and (e) caregiver-reported impact (Feeding-Swallowing Impact Survey; FS-IS).
Results: Of the caregivers who completed the survey, 96.3% (n=79) were the child’s mother; 86.3% (n=69) of children were male with 83.8% (n=67) with co-occurring diagnoses. 68.8% (n=55) of children had clinically significant feeding difficulties using the BPFAS. Children with clinically significant feeding difficulties had higher levels of caregiver-reported impact related to daily activities, worry and feeding difficulties in comparison to children without clinically significant feeding difficulties (FS-IS; U=257.000, z =-4.471,p= <0.00;). Using multiple regression, a model comprising the three child-related factors was statistically significant (F(1,78)=87.75,p <0.001,adj.R2=0.52), with children’s feeding difficulties the strongest predictor with a moderate effect size (0.49).
Conclusion: Caregiver reported feeding difficulties have a greater impact on mealtime participation than autism characteristics or sensory processing and may be a worthy target of supports for autistic children and their families.
Keywords – Autism, Feeding difficulties, Mealtime participation, Neurodiversity
Submission Statement: Continually reflecting on our feeding practices to ensure inclusion is essential. Equally, knowing how to hold space and listen without judgment to caregivers’ journey of supporting their child with feeding difficulties is paramount to our ability to respond in a neuro-diversity informed care approach that respects every individual.