Validation of the social communication questionnaire in a population cohort of children with autism spectrum disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the properties of the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) in a population cohort of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and in the general population.


METHODS
SCQ data were collected from three samples: the Special Needs and Autism Project (SNAP) cohort of 9- to 10-year-old children with special educational needs with and without ASD and two similar but separate age groups of children from the general population (n = 411 and n= 247). Diagnostic assessments were completed on a stratified subsample (n = 255) of the special educational needs group. A sample-weighting procedure enabled us to estimate characteristics of the SCQ in the total ASD population. Diagnostic status of cases in the general population samples were extracted from child health records.


RESULTS
The SCQ showed strong discrimination between ASD and non-ASD cases (sensitivity 0.88, specificity 0.72) and between autism and nonautism cases (sensitivity 0.90, specificity 0.86). Findings were not affected by child IQ or parental education. In the general population samples between 4% and 5% of children scored above the ASD cutoff including 1.5% who scored above the autism cutoff. Although many of these high-scoring children had an ASD diagnosis, almost all(approximately 90%) of them had a diagnosed neurodevelopmental disorder.


CONCLUSIONS
This study confirms the utility of the SCQ as a first-level screen for ASD in at-risk samples of school-age children.
Chandler
Susie
S
Profs. Chandler and Baird are with Guy's and Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London; Prof. Charman is with UCL Institute of Child Health, London; Prof. Simonoff is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Dr. Loucas is with School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Meldrum is with Chatswood Assessment Centre, Sydney; Ms. Scott is with East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; and Prof. Pickles is with Division of Epidemiology & Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK. Electronic address: t.charman@ich.ucl.ac.uk.
Charman
Tony
T
Profs. Chandler and Baird are with Guy's and Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London; Prof. Charman is with UCL Institute of Child Health, London; Prof. Simonoff is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Dr. Loucas is with School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Meldrum is with Chatswood Assessment Centre, Sydney; Ms. Scott is with East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; and Prof. Pickles is with Division of Epidemiology & Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
Baird
Gillian
G
Profs. Chandler and Baird are with Guy's and Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London; Prof. Charman is with UCL Institute of Child Health, London; Prof. Simonoff is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Dr. Loucas is with School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Meldrum is with Chatswood Assessment Centre, Sydney; Ms. Scott is with East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; and Prof. Pickles is with Division of Epidemiology & Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
Simonoff
Emily
E
Profs. Chandler and Baird are with Guy's and Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London; Prof. Charman is with UCL Institute of Child Health, London; Prof. Simonoff is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Dr. Loucas is with School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Meldrum is with Chatswood Assessment Centre, Sydney; Ms. Scott is with East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; and Prof. Pickles is with Division of Epidemiology & Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
Loucas
Tom
T
Profs. Chandler and Baird are with Guy's and Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London; Prof. Charman is with UCL Institute of Child Health, London; Prof. Simonoff is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Dr. Loucas is with School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Meldrum is with Chatswood Assessment Centre, Sydney; Ms. Scott is with East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; and Prof. Pickles is with Division of Epidemiology & Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
Meldrum
David
D
Profs. Chandler and Baird are with Guy's and Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London; Prof. Charman is with UCL Institute of Child Health, London; Prof. Simonoff is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Dr. Loucas is with School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Meldrum is with Chatswood Assessment Centre, Sydney; Ms. Scott is with East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; and Prof. Pickles is with Division of Epidemiology & Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
Scott
Mimi
M
Profs. Chandler and Baird are with Guy's and Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London; Prof. Charman is with UCL Institute of Child Health, London; Prof. Simonoff is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Dr. Loucas is with School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Meldrum is with Chatswood Assessment Centre, Sydney; Ms. Scott is with East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; and Prof. Pickles is with Division of Epidemiology & Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
Pickles
Andrew
A
Profs. Chandler and Baird are with Guy's and Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London; Prof. Charman is with UCL Institute of Child Health, London; Prof. Simonoff is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; Dr. Loucas is with School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Dr. Meldrum is with Chatswood Assessment Centre, Sydney; Ms. Scott is with East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, UK; and Prof. Pickles is with Division of Epidemiology & Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires