Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorders With the Social Communication Questionnaire

Abstract

The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) is a parent report screening measure for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). To examine its validity in a young sample, the SCQ was given to parents of 151 children at a mean age of 5 years, before assessment in tertiary autism or preschool clinics. Overall sensitivity was .71, the same for both clinics, but specificity was better for the preschool clinic (.62) than for the autism clinic (.53) reflecting fewer false-positives in the former. The "hit rate" was 65% with 28% of the children with autism missed by the SCQ at a cutoff score of 15 (false-negatives) and 38% of the nonautistic misidentified as having an ASD (false-positives). Item validity analysis, contrary to what was previously published, indicated that only 15 or 46% of the items distinguished between children with and without ASD in this much younger sample. False-negatives were somewhat higher functioning. The SCQ would seem to be a useful tool for identifying young children in need of further assessment and assisting in routing them to the appropriate clinic, especially if used in conjunction with a screening by a community professional. There remain questions about the "best" cutoff score to use and whether a shorter version, based on the items that distinguished autistic from nonautistic, would be more reliable and valid with younger children. Furthermore, it may be that an adjusted score is required when parents omit items or with nonverbal children who cannot be scored on some of the items.

Adaptação sócio-comunicativa no espectro autístico: dados obtidos com pais e terapeutas

“…Isso deixa claro que a aplicação do questionário e do protocolo de adaptação sócio-comunicativa a diferentes informantes pode fornecer um resultado bastante homogêneo, sendo possível realizar de forma fidedigna a caracterização das habilidades de relacionamento social dessas crianças. Esses dados são compatíveis com as idéias de diversos autores (12)(13)(14)(15)(16) no sentido de que a consideração da perspectiva dos pais de crianças do espectro autístico quanto ao comportamento linguístico, cognitivo e social de seus filhos merece destaque, possibilitando que estes se tornem parceiros dos profissionais envolvidos no processo de intervenção, ajudando no monitoramento do nível de desenvolvimento destas crianças.…”

“…Entretanto, foi percebida a necessidade de uma análise e uma comparação dos mesmos aspectos, obtidos a partir da perspectiva de indivíduos que enxergam esse mesmo alvo, mas com outro foco, como as terapeutas (11) . A consideração da perspectiva dos pais de crianças do espectro autístico quanto ao comportamento linguístico, cognitivo e social de seus filhos vem sendo colocada em um lugar de destaque, uma vez que estes passam a ser parceiros dos profissionais envolvidos no processo de intervenção, ajudando no monitoramento do nível de desenvolvimento destas crianças (12)(13)(14)(15) . Investigando o uso da informação do contexto familiar para direcionar a avaliação e o processo terapêutico, observouse que o uso dessas informações em processos de avaliação e terapia não geram problemas, podendo contribuir para a estabilidade e durabilidade da redução de comportamentos desafiantes alcançados por meio de uma abordagem funcional da comunicação (16)(17)(18) .…”

Restricted and Repetitive Behaviours, Sensory Processing and Cognitive Style in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…However, this cut-off can be adapted for individual studies. Eaves et al (2006) found that sensitivity and specificity were lower for children with high verbal IQs, and it has been suggested that a lower cutoff may be appropriate (Corsello et al 2007). Thirty-one children were at cut-off point of 15 or above; six had scores from 9 to 13.…”

Comparative Analysis of Three Screening Instruments for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Toddlers at High Risk

“…When only a combination of items with positive and significant Phi-values (although these individual values indicate weak associations) is used as in the shorter version of the SCQ, this would help improving the specificity (with sensitivity remaining above 0.80) as compared to using the complete instrument, especially for the age group 8-24 months. Somewhat similar suggestions for improving the SCQ have been put forward by Eaves et al (2006a). However, before the suggested alternatives can be used in clinical practice, these findings need to be replicated.…”