The Impact of Face Mask Use on Research Evaluations of 5-7 Year-Old Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Researchers looked at how wearing face masks during COVID-19 affected autism assessments in 60 children aged 5-7. Most children (67%) could wear masks the whole time, 22% wore them sometimes, and 12% couldn't wear them. Children who couldn't wear masks had lower thinking and communication skills. However, researchers said mask-wearing didn't affect their ability to properly assess the children in 88% of cases.

This study examined how face mask use during COVID-19 affected autism research evaluations in 60 children aged 5-7 years with autism spectrum disorder. Two-thirds of children tolerated masks throughout assessments, while 22% wore them part-time and 12% couldn't tolerate them at all. Children who couldn't wear masks had significantly lower cognitive and communication scores compared to those who could. Importantly, research staff reported that mask use had no impact on assessment results in 88% of cases, suggesting that diagnostic evaluations remained reliable despite pandemic restrictions.

The findings indicate that most children with autism can accommodate mask-wearing during clinical assessments without compromising evaluation quality.

Most children with autism can successfully participate in clinical assessments while wearing masks. Clinicians should be prepared with alternative strategies for children who cannot tolerate masks, particularly those with lower cognitive and communication abilities. Assessment validity appears largely uncompromised by mask requirements.

Small sample size (n=60) limits generalizability. Study relies on subjective researcher ratings rather than objective outcome measures. No comparison group without masks. Limited details about assessment protocols or mask accommodation strategies.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the nature of clinical research assessments. Little is known about the impact of face mask use on research assessments for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study reports on tolerability of face mask use, child characteristics associated with tolerability, and the impact of face mask use on researcher ASD diagnostic certainty ratings. This paper describes results from a larger study of children who were clinically diagnosed with ASD in early childhood and were re-evaluated at age 5-7 years.

Research diagnostic evaluations were conducted from 2018 to 2022 and included cognitive, language, and social-communication assessment. A research psychologist completed a rating scale on the potential impact of face mask use on research assessment diagnostic certainty for a subset of participants (n = 60) who were evaluated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The mean age of study participants was 6.2 years. Face masks were tolerated throughout the assessment for 40 children (66.7%); part-time for 13 (21.6%); and not tolerated for 7 (11.6%).

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) suggested that children who did not tolerate a face mask had significantly lower cognitive [F(2, 59) = 13.241, p < 0.001] and communication [F(2, 59) = 13.639, p < 0.001] scores compared to children who wore their mask for all or part of the visit. For 88% of research assessments, research staff indicated that face mask use had "no impact" on overall assessment results. Face mask use during clinical research assessment was not reported by research staff to significantly impact their ability to complete ASD evaluations.