Revising the Social Communication Questionnaire scoring procedures for Autism Spectrum Disorder and potential Social Communication Disorder

In analyzing data from the National Database for Autism Research, we examine revising the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), a commonly used screening instrument for Autism Spectrum Disorder. A combination of Item Response Theory and Mokken scaling techniques were utilized to achieve this and abbreviated scoring of the SCQ is suggested. The psychometric sensitivity of this abbreviated SCQ was examined via bootstrapped Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. Additionally, we examined the sensitivity of the abbreviated and total scaled SCQ as it relates to a potential diagnosis of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SCD). As SCD is a new disorder introduced with the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), we identified individuals with potential diagnosis of SCD among individuals with ASD via mixture modeling techniques using the same NDAR data. These analyses revealed two classes or clusters of individuals when considering the two core areas of impairment among individuals with ASD: social communication and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior.