Short Report: Primary Care Autism Assessment Training Program Pilot Trial

Lay Abstract

In Oregon and other places across the United States, parents often face long wait times to get their children evaluated for autism. Getting an autism diagnosis before age 3 can help children and their families to get the services and supports they need to thrive. Families might have shorter wait times if pediatric primary care practitioners (PCPs) were trained to do autism assessments. Programs nationwide have been developed and used to train PCPs to conduct autism assessments for these reasons. Twenty-four PCPs in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area were trained to conduct autism assessments with young children in 2024. The training asked PCPs to participate in an online autism course; a 2-day, in-person workshop on autism assessment; and eight community learning sessions. We studied this training to understand (a) how practical it was to implement this training, (b) whether PCPs’ self-reported knowledge and confidence about autism assessment changed, and (c) the number and characteristics of children who received autism assessments after the PCPs were trained. We collected data from the PCPs three times, including before training started, after the in-person workshop, and after the community learning sessions. We found that PCPs generally rated their participation and training experience positively. We also found that PCPs’ knowledge and confidence increased. They evaluated 34 children across diverse groups for autism. Similar training programs may help to address shortages of PCPs who are qualified to conduct autism assessments and increase access to early autism evaluation.