Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ)

Purpose: Routinely screen for autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Age: 4+ years

Time: <10 minutes

The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) helps evaluate communication skills and social functioning in children who may have autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

Completed by a parent or other primary caregiver, the SCQ is a cost-effective way to determine whether an individual should be referred for a complete diagnostic evaluation.

The questionnaire can be used to evaluate anyone over age 4, as long as his or her mental age exceeds 2 years.

It is available in two forms—Lifetime and Current—each composed of just 40 yes-or-no questions. Both forms can be given directly to the parent, who can answer the questions without supervision.

Lifetime Form

The Lifetime Forms focuses on the child’s entire developmental history, providing a Total Score that’s interpreted in relation to specific cutoff points. This score identifies individuals who may have autism and should be referred for a more complete evaluation—with the Autism Diagnostic Interview, Revised (ADI-R) or the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2), for example.

Current Form

Moving from developmental history to present status, the Current Form looks at the child’s behaviour over the most recent 3-month period. It produces results that can be helpful in treatment planning, educational intervention, and measurement of change over time.

Now Available Online!

The SCQ Online is accessed via the WPS Online Evaluation System (platform.wpspublish.com). The WPS Online Evaluation System offers convenient SCQ online administration and scoring.

Online testing allows clinicians to:

• Administer locally or remotely
• Email links to online forms directly to raters
• Check the status of an administration at any time
• Consume an online form only when you score it—never lose a print form again
• Easily see how many licenses are left so you never run out
• Score quickly and easily—no need for manual calculations
• View, save, and print reports so you can easily share valuable information with teachers, parents, and others involved in treatment
• Download and print Response Sheets when parents don’t have Internet access
• Share online uses and other resources easily with the organization feature

Sample Online SCQ Sample Report