SCQ

From Pheno Wiki
Revision as of 16:22, 22 July 2009 by Deanna (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search


Papers List | Variables List

SCQ

Basic Characteristics

  • Description

The Social Communication Questionnaire is a 40 item yes/no questionnaire that was developed to be a secondary screening tool for Autism. The SCQ is meant to be completed by the primary caregiver. It is based on the ADI, a more thorough diagnostic tool. The SCQ is suggested for use in people above 4 years of age but specifically for those between the years of 4-5. The SCQ is not appropriate for people with a mental age younger than 2.

The SCQ questions deal with reciprocal social interactions, language and communication, repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. 1


  • History

Scoring

The score ranges between 0-32 for people who cannot communicate using language and 0-39 for those who can. Anyone receiving a score of 15 or higher should be referred to a specialist to undergo diagnostic testing.

The cutoff score of 15 has been suggested to balance the tradeoff between specificity and sensitivity. 1


Psychometrics (validity and reliability)

Studies with various populations have come up with differing sensitivities and specificities depending on the cutoff score. Hanson et. al. found a specificity of 0.41 and a sensitivity of 0.68 in a group of 42 children in an age range between 1.5-4.5 years.

Another study with 293 children where 230 had already been diagnosed with ASD showed that the SCQ had a specificity of 0.87 and a sensitivity of 0.62. Thus, the SCQ may be good at screening out non-autistic children but tends to have a fair amount of false negatives, particularly with children with higher IQ scores or mild symptoms. Lowering the cutoff score to 12 improves sensitivity but increases false positives.2


References

1.Eaves et. al. Screening for autism spectrum disorders with the social communication questionnaire.J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2006 Apr;27(2 Suppl):S95-S103 PMID 16685191

2. Mulligan et. al. The Social Communication Questionnaire in a sample of the general population of school-going children.Ir J Med Sci. 2009 Jun;178(2):193-9 PMID 18651205


Related Information

  • Indicators (dependent variables, conditions, or contrasts; measurement variables used for analysis) associated with this task (vote or nominate by editing this page):


  • Closely related pages (vote or nominate related pages by editing this page):

Other Screening Tools
CHAT
MCHAT
STAT
CAST
ASSQ

  • Primary Species

humans

External Resources

  • Links out:
    • -ucla cognitive atlas- (coming soon!)
  • Database links