Factor Structure of Autism Symptoms in 5-6-Year-Old Children: Age Perspective

The work identifies the factor structure of autism symptoms in older preschoolers to check their age dynamics. An Autism Marker Questionnaire containing 330 potential symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was developed to be implemented as an online survey. 501 children were examined (371 with ASD) already classified by experts as a group of ASD, typically developing (TD) or with developmental delay (DD). At the exploratory stage, a relatively simple 8-factor structure was obtained: Speech Understanding (SU), Emotions (Em), Persistence on Sameness (Sam), Hyperactivity/Disinhibition (Hyp), Sensory disintegration (Sen), Echolalia (Ech). Each factor formed a sufficiently reliable scale in terms of internal consistency. Logistic regression demonstrated high accuracy in dividing children into groups with and without ASD. The model for confirmatory analysis included eight primary factors and 3 secondary factors: 1) Communication disorders, COM (SU, Em, Emp, Ech), 2) Sensory disintegration, SD (SD, PS, Ech), 3) Praxis impairment, PI (Hyp, Mot). The multigroup confirmatory analysis confirmed the equivalence of the model for boys and girls, as well as 5- and 6-year-old children. The factors obtained can be considered as key autistic symptoms for this age group and can shed some light on our theoretical understanding of the autistic symptoms age dynamics in preschoolers.