Clinical Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Israel: Impact of Ethnic and Social Diversities

Table 4

Person who first suspected children to be having an autistic disorder and selected clinical presentation among study patients. Parents were the most common people who suspected autism among the two populations ( < 0.05 statistically significant; see text for details).

	Total number (%)	Jews number (%)	Arabs number (%)	values
Parents	138 (69)	89 (68.9)	49 (69.1)	0.561
Kindergarten teacher	28 (14)	22 (17)	6 (8.5)	0.012
Doctor	31 (15.5)	16 (12.4)	15 (21)	0.06
Global delay	34 (17)	15 (11.26)	9 (12.67)	0.492
Language delay	71 (35.5)	50 (38.75)	21 (29.75)	0.12
Eye contact	28 (14)	20 (15.5)	8 (11.26)	0.27
Communication	50 (25)	25 (19.37)	25 (35.21)	0.01
Behavioral	9 (4.5)	5 (3.80)	4 (5.68)	0.4
Clumsiness	8 (4)	5 (3.87)	3 (4)	0.528
Regression	16 (8)	11 (8.52)	5 (7.04)	0.471
Convulsions	6 (3.0)	4 (3.0)	2 (2.8)	0.64