Alehagen, Bölte, and colleagues performed a feasibility examine to develop and user-test a web based platform for the ICF Core Units for autism and ADHD. The examine discovered that the platform was straightforward to make use of, acceptable to contributors, and able to capturing the variety of functioning profiles, with iterative revisions addressing person suggestions. The software is now prepared for psychometric validation.
Evaluation of Particular person Functioning
Conventional evaluation in autism and ADHD has typically relied on diagnostic classes, lacking the heterogeneity and contextual components that affect day by day functioning. The World Well being Group’s Worldwide Classification of Functioning, Incapacity and Well being (ICF) presents a biopsychosocial framework for describing functioning, together with strengths and environmental components. ICF Core Units have been developed for autism and ADHD, however uptake has been restricted as a result of absence of sensible, accessible instruments. Current measures are sometimes deficit-focused, and don’t totally align with the views or wants of neurodivergent individuals.
A significant evaluation must seize not simply diagnoses, however context and lived expertise.
ICF Core Units
Alehagen et al. developed and piloted a digital platform to operationalize the ICF Core Units for autism and ADHD. The platform offers self-report and proxy-report choices throughout totally different age teams and makes use of an 11-point scale for score challenges and strengths. Environmental components are rated from -5 (very hindering) to +5 (very facilitating), and every merchandise permits for qualitative feedback.
The examine concerned 678 accomplished assessments from autistic and ADHD people, their family, the overall inhabitants, and professionals in Sweden and the UK. Contributors usually discovered the platform straightforward to make use of and visually clear. The primary strengths reported had been the great protection of functioning, the inclusion of strengths and environmental components, and the chance for person suggestions. Professionals considered the platform as a option to transfer past prognosis and towards individualized evaluation.
Suggestions additionally recognized areas for enchancment, such because the size and repetitiveness of merchandise units, the necessity for higher age-specific adaptation, and accessibility options like colour-blind design and display reader compatibility. Contributors emphasised the worth of together with neurodivergent views, recognition of behaviours akin to stimming, and a focus to points like masking and vitality regulation. Primarily based on suggestions, the platform was revised to incorporate gadgets on masking and vitality regulation, develop free-text choices, and make clear scale wording. Some adjustments, such because the inclusion of non-public components not presently coated by the ICF, weren’t doable inside the current framework.
Digital ICF Core Units let customers describe what helps and hinders them in on a regular basis life.
Going ahead
The authors counsel that, whereas the revised platform was properly obtained, additional work is required to determine its psychometric properties and develop its software throughout totally different nations and cultures. They be aware the significance of balancing adherence to the ICF mannequin with the preferences and desires of neurodivergent customers, family, and professionals. The authors suggest additional analysis to develop norms for the software in various settings, and to contemplate the long run integration of non-public components because the ICF framework evolves.
Subsequent steps: validate the software and guarantee its relevance for various communities.
Conclusions
The examine concludes that operationalizing the ICF Core Units for autism and ADHD in a web based platform is possible and acceptable to a spread of customers. The platform permits for the evaluation of functioning in a holistic and individualized manner and is now prepared for additional psychometric validation.
A holistic, user-informed evaluation can help higher planning and inclusion.
NB this weblog has been peer-reviewed
References
- Alehagen, L., Hasslinger, J., Wessman, E., Black, M., Lundin Remnélius, Ok., Helander, J., Zander, E. & Bölte, S. (2025). Operationalizing the ICF Core Units for Autism and ADHD: A A number of-Strategies Feasibility Examine. Journal of Autism and Developmental Issues. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06717-4
- Bölte, S., Mahdi, S., de Vries, P. J., Granlund, M., Robison, J. E. & Halladay, A. (2019). The Gestalt of functioning in autism spectrum dysfunction: Outcomes of the worldwide convention to develop functioning constructs utilizing the ICF framework. Autism, 23(2), 253–263. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361318755522
- de Schipper, E., Mahdi, S., de Vries, P., Granlund, M., Holtmann, M., Karande, S., & Bölte, S. (2015). Functioning and incapacity in autism spectrum dysfunction: A worldwide survey of consultants. Autism Analysis, 8(6), 782–796. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1583
- de Schipper, E., Mahdi, S., Bölte, S., et al. (2016). In direction of an ICF core set for ADHD: A worldwide professional survey on capability and incapacity. European Baby & Adolescent Psychiatry, 25(8), 927–936. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0815-5
- Mahdi, S., Viljoen, M., Massuti, R., Selb, M., Almodayfer, O., Karande, S., … & Bölte, S. (2018). A world qualitative examine of capability and incapacity in ADHD utilizing the WHO-ICF framework. European Baby & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(10), 1305–1319. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-018-1106-3
- Mahdi, S., de Vries, P. J., Franz, L., et al. (2018). A world qualitative examine of capability and incapacity in autism spectrum dysfunction utilizing the WHO-ICF framework. Journal of Autism and Developmental Issues, 48(6), 2148–2163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3509-3
- World Well being Group. (2001). Worldwide Classification of Functioning, Incapacity and Well being (ICF). Geneva: WHO. https://www.who.int/requirements/classifications/international-classification-of-functioning-disability-and-health
The place subsequent?
This convention, brings collectively 4 main consultants to discover distinct but interconnected matters: early detection, co-occurring psychological well being challenges, participatory approaches, and evidence-based helps for adolescents and younger adults. With a give attention to sensible instruments, rising fashions, and inclusive innovation, this convention is important for professionals working to enhance outcomes for autistic kids, teenagers, and their households.
An exceptional line-up contains: Professor Sven Bölte, Professor Geraldine Dawson, Affiliate Professor Georgia Pavlopoulou, and Professor Susan White.
Use the interactive programme beneath to achieve an outline of the subject, meet the audio system, check your information, and an entire lot extra!
Concerning the writer
Professor Francisco Musich, PhD is a Scientific Psychologist, Professor of Childhood Psychiatric and Neurological Dysfunction at Universidad Favaloro, Argentina, Head of the Division of Baby and Adolescent Psychology on the Institute for Cognitive Neurology – INECO – Argentina, and Head of the Division of Psychopathology and Differential Analysis – ETCI – Argentina.
