68 Chapter 3 for diagnostic assessment at specialized mental healthcare centers at a very young age. The yellow compartment represents children where parents and PCPs have concerns, but the risk signals are less clear then in the “red” children. “Yellow” children might function on higher cognitive levels, have better language skills, or are maybe girls (with a less specific phenotype). This compartment represents the children who are often referred for diagnostic assessment at a later age. Finally, there are “A” and “B” children. The “A” group represents children where PCPs have concerns regarding the child’s development but parents have not, making it difficult for PCPs to motivate parents for diagnostic assessment (as described by Snijder et al., 2021). The “B” group represents the children described in the current paper, about whom parents experience concerns regarding their child’s development but are not acknowledged by PCPs. PCPs either do not recognize the early signs of ASD or PCPs think that the child is too young and that they should “wait-and-see” how the child will develop over time. Both groups are equally troublesome, since they contribute to a delay of approximately two years between initial concerns and diagnosis (Oosterling et al., 2019; Snijder et al., 2021). Figure. 2. Parental concerns versus professional concerns, as developed by Oosterling et al., 2019. The diagram may help in thinking about solutions for improving the early identification of ASD. As an example, to address problems related to both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ compartments, in the Netherlands, a free online training has been developed in order to improve professionals’ knowledge regarding ASD symptoms in infancy and toddlerhood (Oosterling & Dietz, 2017), along with an in-depth Live Online educational program that addresses early detection, ASD symptoms in infancy and toddlerhood, communicating with parents and referral (van ‘t Hof et al., 2020). Also, an easily accessible website has been developed by the national expert network autism in young children (www.autismejongekind.nl) in order to improve knowledge
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