Date
8-6-2025
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Chair
Kelly Gorbett
Keywords
autism, assessment, special education eligibility, school, evidence-based practice
Disciplines
Educational Psychology | Psychology
Recommended Citation
Rose, Melissa, "Evidence-Based Autism Assessments: Utility of a School-Based Autism Evaluation Fidelity Checklist" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7299.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7299
Abstract
Research has demonstrated limited use of evidence-based autism assessments in school settings. The use of fidelity checklists for evidence-based interventions for autism are a focus of research; however, there are not any fidelity checklists or tools for measuring evidence-based autism assessments. This study used an exploratory sequential mixed methods design to create and utilize a school-based autism assessment fidelity checklist rubric with a retrospective model. This study began with a focus group to refine the rubric and provide social validity. Then, the rubric was used to measure the fidelity of 52 initial school-based autism assessments across two time periods, one prior to Autism assessment training and coaching and the other one following the start of training and coaching in a rural region of California. Data was also captured to determine if there were any differences between the two groups related to age of initial identification of Autism, latency of Autism, gender, and initial disability determination if different from Autism. The data was analyzed with MANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA, and Breslow-Day statistical analyses to address the research questions and hypotheses. There are some promising results regarding reliability for the use of the tool, though no statistically significant differences in scores were found between the treatment groups. There were, however, differences found in age of identification of Autism, latency of Autism in both groups, and some differences for females for their initial eligibility indicating improvement in identifying children under the category of Autism younger and sooner. This research is significant because it has the potential to contribute to improving Autism assessments in school settings.
