Development and Psychometric Validation of the Questionnaire for Social Communication in Young Autistic Learners...

There is a dearth of high-quality, efficient, and change-sensitive measurement tools for capturing social communication for young children with autism. The current study sets out to develop such a measure using best practices in patient-reported measure development.

The Questionnaire for Social Communication in Young Autistic Learners (Q-SoCiAL) was developed in four phases: (1) construct definition and item generation using information from literature review and focus groups with parents, teachers, and experts; (2) item refinement via cognitive interviewing with parents and teachers of autistic children; (3) item selection and evaluation of structural validity using data from parents of autistic (n = 330) and neurotypical (n = 401) children; and (4) evaluation of external validity, including known groups comparisons (autistic vs. neurotypical children) and convergent/divergent validity evidence.

Preliminary analyses, cognitive interviewing, and expert review led to a final instrument containing 46 items appropriate for use with children who use more than 10 spontaneous words. Factor analysis on a sample of 330 children suggested a unidimensional structure. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and cross-rater consistency were very high. Q-SoCiAL scores correlated as expected with several clinical and demographic variables in the autism group.

This new measurement tool fills an important gap in the field and has the potential to improve social communication measurement in clinical practice and research.