Our researchers improved professional practice of autism using a coordinated set of diagnostic and awareness-raising tools.

Early referral for diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) maximises better outcomes for children; however, the varied and often subtle manifestations of ASD are difficult to recognise, both in community settings and by specialists.

Researchers from the Wales Autism Research Centre (WARC) adapted and enhanced the widely used Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders (DISCO) to create robust algorithms for ASD diagnosis. The research created the first algorithm to incorporate criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) that could be used within a single diagnostic interview method.

The researchers also created an Abbreviated DISCO DSM-5 algorithm item set with equally high levels of specificity and sensitivity and an even smaller DISCO Signposting Set. These coordinated set of tools can be used in both diagnostic and community settings.

View the Birthday Party Film on the AutismWales.org website.

Impact of the Birthday Party film

Welsh Government

The film has been adopted by the Welsh Government’s National Autism Team and was used as part of their Learning About Autism programme, which aims to raise awareness and understanding of autism in educational settings, as well as part of their Clinicians’ toolkit.

Teaching and healthcare training

Examples of its use include teacher training in Italy, Australia, Spain, The Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania and Vietnam, and training healthcare professionals in a wide variety of countries including Kenya and Mali. The film has also been made available to all Italian nursery and kindergarten teachers through the Istituto Superiore di Sanita (leading technical-scientific body of the Italian Health Service).

Use in the wider community

The Birthday Party film has been included in the Royal College of General Practitioners’ ASD online toolkit and in specialist training by the National Autistic Society. It has also been part of the Autism Essentials for Psychiatrists training course e-resources, developed by Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the Centre for Autism Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Intellectual Disability.

Our achievements were recognised in a Cardiff University Innovation and Impact Award in 2019. For further information, read our summary report of the development and impact of the film.

Research partners