The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

A campaign to increase awareness and action in identifying children at risk for autism and other developmental disorders. Research shows that children with developmental delays benefit considerably from early intervention services, yet half of these children are not identified until age 5. This session provides attendees with an overview and update of the CDC’s autism awareness campaign, and identifies further opportunities for parents, physicians, and child care providers regarding tracking of developmental milestones and warning signs of developmental delays, such as autism. In 2004, CDC launched the “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” campaign to educate parents, health care professionals, and child care providers about social, emotional, cognitive, and language developmental milestones and the importance of early intervention when a delay is suspected. Audience research found that parents want to know what to watch for and how to talk with their child's doctors. Health care professionals know developmental milestones, but expressed concerns about overly worried parents. Child care providers indicated they are many times uncertain of how to approach parents if they suspect a delay. This campaign creates and disseminates tools to increase the quality and effectiveness of dialogue between parents and health care professionals and parents and child care providers on childhood development.

Partnering with national autism organizations, including the Autism Society of America and others, the campaign has embarked upon significant outreach efforts including mobilizing hundreds of parents and champions across the country to help spread campaign messages into local communities. These advocates distribute campaign materials and engage in local speaking opportunities and events in an effort to educate health care professionals, child care providers, and other parents in their communities about the importance of monitoring a child's development. Other significant outreach efforts include creating a dedicated campaign website with interactive tools for parents, downloadable materials, and other helpful resources; securing targeted news media placements; and attending health care professional conferences for numerous medical professional organizations.

To aid in spreading campaign messages, a variety of tools and resources have been developed for parents, health care professionals, and child care providers. The resource kits for parents include fact sheets, interactive checklists, and information cards with questions to ask their child's doctor. Health Care Professional Resource Kits include these same materials and posters, office display stands, and resources to answer condition-specific concerns. Child Care Provider Resource Kits contain campaign flyers along with a CD with fact sheets about developmental milestones and developmental delays, a list of resources, tips on talking with parents about child development, and a developmental milestones checklist template. All these tools are designed to help parents learn about childhood development and they are important resources in their outreach efforts. The campaign also partners with Autism Speaks and the Ad Council on community messaging.

Campaign impact and awareness results have proven to be significant thanks to efforts of parents and champions across the country. Evaluation data from the 2006 national HealthStyles survey revealed parents who are aware of the campaign are significantly more likely to believe the best time to get help for a child with autism is before 2 years old (30% of those aware vs. 24% unaware). Similarly, significantly more parents aware of the campaign strongly agree or agree that their child's nurse/doctor asked about their child's development at their last well-child visit (81% of those aware vs. 76% unaware); and aware parents were significantly more likely to strongly agree or agree that they asked their child's nurse/doctor for more information about their child's development (59% of those aware vs. 47% unaware). Data from the 2004 and 2006 DocStyles surveys indicate that more pediatricians regularly screen for developmental delays (from 87% in 2004 to 92% in 2006) and significantly fewer pediatricians advocate a “wait and see” approach when parents share a concern about their child's development (30% in 2004 vs. 14% in 2006).

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