A fisioterapia em busca das escalas de avaliação do autismo

Abstract

Introduction: Autism or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), as it is also known, is a neurodevelopmental disorder manifested in childhood that results in deficits in social and motor interactions. Assessment scales developed specifically to diagnose and classify these children are found for a better therapeutic approach. Objective: To identify the most commonly used assessment instrument worldwide by physiotherapists to classify children and adolescents with autism. Methods: A search for materials was initiated, with publications between the years 2010 and 2019, available in the electronic databases: Periodicals Capes, Google Academic, MEDLINE, PUBMED, BIREME and Scielo. The following keywords were used to select the materials: autistic spectrum disorder, physiotherapy, assessment scale, neurodevelopment and pediatric neurology. For inclusion of the articles, national and international studies were accepted, with scores higher than 7 based on the PEDro scale, which was developed by Physiotherapy Evidence Data. Results: Initially, 339 articles were selected, and 11 of these were included, consistent with the selected keywords and satisfying the criteria determined for their inclusion in the study. In total, 3 evaluation instruments were identified, and a higher prevalence of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) was found. Conclusion: The studies proved to be relevant for health professionals, especially physiotherapy, but it is important to carry out more studies on the subject addressed, since few studies developed by physiotherapists were found.