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Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ)
Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ)
| Availability |
Please visit this website for more information about the instrument:
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| Classification |
Supplemental - Highly Recommended: Cerebral Palsy (CP).
Supplemental: Epilepsy and Neuromuscular Disease (NMD).
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| Short Description of Instrument |
The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) (formally known as the Autism Screen Questionnaire (ASQ)) assesses the communication skills and social functioning in children suspected to have autism or autism spectrum disorder. It can assist in the decision of the child being referred to a diagnostic evaluation if autism is suspected. It is administered to the child by a parent or caregiver. The SCQ is designed for children above the age of 4, with a mental age of at least 2 years.
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| Comments/Special Instructions |
Two versions of the SCQ are available: one version focuses on the child's entire developmental history and one that focuses on the child's behavior over the last three months. It is recommended that the diagnostic evaluation follow-up uses the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R), as the ADI-R and the SCQ have a high score agreement. The original ASQ was developed with 40-items and was found to have a good discriminative validity with respect to the separation of PDD and non-PDD diagnoses on all IQ levels.
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| Scoring and Psychometric Properties |
Scoring: Items are scored either as "no" or "yes" which correspond to items-level scores of "0" or "1", respectively. The answer to item 1 dictates which items are to be added to determine the Total Score. If "yes" to Item 1, then Items 2 to 40 are added to Total Score. If "no" to Item 1, then only add Items 8 to 40. Subscale scores can be obtained for (1) Reciprocal Social Interaction, (2) Communication, and (3) Restricted, Repetitive, and Stereotyped Patterns of Behavior. (Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, 2022)
Psychometric Properties: The SCQ has good validity in differentiating children with ASD from children with other learning disabilities. (Martin et al., 2014) In a validation study by Berument et al. (1999) the SCQ discriminated well between ASD and non-ASD cases with a sensitivity of 0.85 and a specificity of 0.75. (Chandler et al., 2007)
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| Rationale/Justification |
Strengths: It is a tool that can give a good picture of a child's social and communication skills and assessing a child for potential ASD. Current form may be helpful as a measure of current level of severity. (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 2020)
Weaknesses: This was created as a screening instrument and may not be suitable for individual diagnosis. No data has been reported on false positives and here is limited data on non-ASD conditions that involve overlapping difficulties.
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| References |
Key References:
Rutter M, Bailey A, Lord C. Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) [Internet]. Western Psychological Services. 2003 [cited 23 June 2016]. Available from: http://www.wpspublish.com/store/p/2954/social-communication-questionnaire-scq .
Berument SK, Rutter M, Lord C, Pickles A, Bailey A. Autism screening questionnaire: diagnostic validity. Bri J Psych. 1999;175:444-451.
Additional References:
Allen CW, Silove N, Williams K, Hutchins P. Validity of the social communication questionnaire in assessing risk of autism in preschool children with developmental problems. J Autism Dev Disord. 2007 Aug;37(7):1272-8.
Chandler S, Charman T, Baird G, Simonoff E, Loucas T, Meldrum D, Scott M, Pickles A. Validation of the social communication questionnaire in a population cohort of children with autism spectrum disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2007 Oct;46(10):1324-1332.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. (2020) Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). Available from: https://www.research.chop.edu/car-autism-roadmap/social-communication-questionnaire-scq. Accessed: 12 December 2023.
Martin J, Hamshere ML, O'Donovan MC, Rutter M, Thapar A. Factor structure of autistic traits in children with ADHD. J Autism Dev Disord. 2014 Jan;44(1):204-15.
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab. (2022). Social Communication Questionnaire. Available from: https://www.sralab.org/rehabilitation-measures/social-communication-questionnaire. Accessed: 12 December 2023.
Document last updated October 2024
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