A Comparison of Parent-Report Social Communication Assessments in School-Age Children with ASD

Presenter(s)

Lauren Prehn

Abstract or Description

Social communication is a key criterion for autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, few identification assessments focus specifically on social communication deficits in this disorder. The Children’s Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2), Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), and Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2) are all commonly used assessments, but items across these three assessments have not been compared to determine their effectiveness in identifying social communication impairments in ASD. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the number of items across different social communication categories differed across these three assessments. In the final round of coding, items identified as social communication were sorted into one of four categories. It was determined the SRS-2 had significantly more Play/Social Interaction items than the CCC-2. Additionally, the CCC-2 had significantly more Pragmatics items than the SCQ and SRS-2. No significant differences were found across items in the other two categories (Nonverbal Communication and Emotion/Joint Attention/Theory of Mind) across tests. These findings indicate none of the three assessments overwhelmingly capture a larger range of social communication deficits, however, the CCC-2 best captures pragmatic deficits. Comparison of performance across the three assessments in this study will help to inform how to effectively assess and identify social communication deficits in children with ASD. 

Mentor

Dr. Meghan M. Davidson