Providers' Guidance to Parents and Service Use for Latino Children With Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

To better understand disparities between Latino and White children with autism or other developmental disabilities (ASD/DD), we examined whether Latino ethnicity predicted the number of specialty care services received by children with severe functional limitations depending on medical providers' responses to parents' initial concerns about their child's development. Through linkage of the Pathways and NS-CSHCN datasets, we found ethnic disparities in the receipt of specialty services associated with providers' responsiveness to parent-reported concerns among children with ASD/DD. Among children with significant functional limitations, Latino children whose parents received passive/reassuring responses from their providers were less likely to receive specialty services than White children with ASD/DD. Providers' guidance to parents may be a promising point of intervention for future disparity reduction efforts.