Brief Report: The Preliminary Psychometric Properties of the Social Communication Checklist

Abstract

Despite the expansion of early intervention approaches for young children with ASD, investigators have struggled to identify measures capable of assessing social communication change in response to these interventions. Addressing recent calls for efficient, sensitive, and reliable social communication measures, the current paper outlines the refinement and validation of the Social Communication Checklist (SCC). We discuss two small studies exploring the psychometric properties of the SCC and the SCC-R (revised Social Communication Checklist), including sensitivity to change, inter-rater reliability, and test-retest reliability, in two samples of children with ASD and one sample of typically-developing children. Results indicate this measure is reliable, sensitive to change after a brief social communication intervention, and strongly related to well-established measures of social communicative functioning.

Appendix

Social engagement
Does your child enjoy face-to-face interaction with you?
Does your child prefer to be near you or other family members?
Does your child maintain simple social games for at least 3 turns (e.g., peek-a-boo, chase, pat-a-cake)?
Does your child remain actively engaged with you during social games for at least 5 minutes?
Does your child remain actively engaged with you during social games for at least 10 minutes?
Does your child remain actively engaged with you during toy play for at least 2 minutes?
Does your child remain actively engaged with you during toy play for at least 5 minutes?
Does your child remain actively engaged with you during toy play for at least 10 minutes?
Does your child lead play or try to continue with play once you have stopped (e.g., make eye contact, smile at you, vocalize, or touch you)?
Does your child respond to your attempts to draw his/her attention to something or someone (when you use a point, language, or shift your gaze)?
Does your child make eye contact while interacting or communicating with you?
Does your child initiate activities or play with you (e.g., offer you a toy or find you to come play with him)?
Does your child take turns with you?
Does your child point or show you objects that interest him/her for the purposes of sharing?
Does your child provide greetings and farewells when people come into or leave the room?
Expressive Language (Form)
Does your child babble, or use speech-like sounds?
Does your child use gestures to request items or actions (e.g., lead you to an object, point, sign)?
Does your child communicate a clear choice when presented with 2 alternatives (e.g., by reaching, using eye gaze, using sounds or words)?
Does your child imitate your speech sounds or language?
Does your child use single words spontaneously?
Does your child name objects?
Does your child name actions?
Does your child combine words into simple phrases (e.g., “Go car” “Push train”)?
Does your child use words to describe objects (e.g., “Big red ball” “Little, green ball”)
Does your child use pronouns appropriately?
Does your child use a variety of tenses (words with “ing” or “ed” endings)?
Does your child consistently use sentences to communicate?
Does your child answer simple questions about himself (e.g., “What is your name?” “How old are you?”)?
Does your child answer simple questions about his wants, needs, or environment? (e.g., “What do you want?” “What is it?” “Where is it?”). If yes please circle the type of question he answers.
Does your child answer who, why, or how questions? (e.g., “Who is driving the car?” “Why are you sad?”) If yes please circle the type of questions he answers.
Expressive language (Function)
Does your child babble or use speech-like sounds in a way that is intentionally directed at you (to communicate)?
Does your child use gestures, eye contact, sounds, or language to request desired items or activities? (indicate nonverbal or verbal strategies)
Does your child use gestures, facial expressions, sounds, or language to protest or tell you he does not want something? (indicate nonverbal or verbal strategies)
Does your child use gestures, sounds, or language to ask for help? (indicate nonverbal or verbal strategies)
Does your child use gestures or language to share information (e.g., “I see a plane”)? (indicate nonverbal or verbal strategies)
Does your child use gestures or language to gain your attention (e.g., “Mom, come here”)? (indicate nonverbal or verbal strategies)
Does your child use words to tell you how he is feeling (e.g., “hurt” “mad” “happy”)? (indicate nonverbal or verbal strategies)
Does your child use words to tell you what to do (e.g., “Feed the baby” “Push the car”)?
Does your child tell you about events that have already occurred?
Does your child use words to tell you a simple story?
Does your child ask you questions for information (e.g., “What is that?” “Where is dog?” “Why?”)? If yes please indicate the type of questions.
Does your child ask who, why, or how questions? If yes please circle the type of questions he asks.
Does your child participate in a conversation that is initiated by an adult for 3 consecutive turns?
Does your child participate in a conversation that is initiated by an adult for more than 3 consecutive turns?
Does your child initiate conversations with others?
Receptive communication
Does your child consistently look when his name is called?
Does your child look to people/photos of people when named?
Does your child respond by stopping actions in response to inhibitory words (e.g., “no”, “stop”)?
Does your child identify several named body parts?
Does your child respond appropriately to one step directions in natural play, dressing, or eating routines?
Does your child follow directions with more than one step in natural play, dressing, or eating routines?
Does your child retrieve several requested objects that are in the room but not directly in front of him?
Does your child complete a task and then put away the play materials?
Imitation/play
Does your child imitate facial expressions or movements (e.g., tongue thrust)?
Does your child imitate actions or body movements within songs or known routines (e.g., wheels on the bus movements)?
Does your child imitate conventional gestures (e.g., wave bye-bye, blow kisses, clap hands, etc.)?
Does your child imitate familiar play actions (actions that your child does on his or her own) after seeing you do them?
Does your child imitate novel play actions (actions that your child does not do on his or her own) after seeing you do them?
Does you child engage in longer imitative interactions with you during play in which you take turns imitating each other?
Does your child use toys in an exploratory manner (e.g., touching, mouthing, smelling, looking)?
Does your child combine objects together (e.g., nesting one object in another, putting objects in containers, lining, stacking, ordering toys in certain ways)?
Does your child use cause and effect toys (e.g., mechanical toys, pop-up toys)?
Does your child use toys for their intended purpose (e.g., throw a ball, push a car)?
Does your child direct familiar pretend play actions towards him/herself (e.g., pretend to eat, pretend to sleep, pretend to talk on a toy phone)?
Does your child direct basic pretend play towards another person or a doll or other toy (e.g., pretend to feed a parent or a baby doll, dress a doll, put a doll to bed)?
Does your child pretend that one thing represents another (e.g., pretend a block is a car or a stack of blocks is a building), attribute characteristics to an object that it does not have (e.g., pretend that toy food is “hot” or tastes “yummy”), or animate objects (e.g., make a figurine walk or have a doll hold a cup rather than placing a cup to the doll’s mouth)?
Does your child link several pretend actions together or tell an extended story with toys (e.g., put doll in car and push car to store)?
Does your child take on an imaginary role (e.g., pretend to be a doctor, fireman, mommy/daddy) during play?
Does your child tell an extended story while taking on an imaginary role with at least one other person (e.g., child is doctor, parent is patient; child is mommy, sibling is baby)?