Can questions about social interaction correctly identify preschool aged children with autism?

Abstract

Aim We developed a questionnaire to assess social development (SIQ) in preschool children. Social development is often not included in medical assessment, though it may assist in early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods Parents of 108 children with ASD, speech and language disorders, or 'developmental concerns', recruited from a clinical developmental assessment and community child health service, completed the SIQ, and also a Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) assessment. Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to assess the performance of different questionnaire score thresholds in correctly identifying children with a CARS score of 30 or more...