Improving QoL Measures for Minimally Verbal Autistic Children with Cognitive Disability

Quality of Life (QoL) outcome measures have traditionally excluded autistic individuals with minimal verbal ability or cognitive disability. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) Autism Battery – Lifespan (PAB-L) is a
recently developed instrument to measure autistic QoL across the lifespan. Although PAB-L has been shown to be an acceptable QoL measure in autism, nonverbal people with cognitive disability were underrepresented among participants in the original validation studies. This grant will expand the research on the PAB-L to examine whether it is appropriate in those with profound autism, and also determine what changes, if any, should be made to effectively measure quality of life in this underserved population.