A Preliminary Epidemiologic Study of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder Relative to Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Disability Without Social Communication Deficits.
Susan Ellis Weismer, Eric Rubenstein, Lisa Wiggins and 1 others
PMID 33037562WHAT IT FOUND
Children without autism but with likely social communication problems had more social and repetitive behavior symptoms than children without those problems, yet fewer than children with autism.
Parent report showed the social difference; the observation-based social affect score did not.
Key findings
01The Likely SCD group had significantly higher ADI-R social and restricted repetitive behavior scores than the No SCD group.
02The ADOS social affect score did not separate Likely SCD from No SCD, but the ADOS restricted repetitive behavior score did.
03Receptive and expressive language scores did not significantly differ between the Likely SCD and No SCD groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was recruited to identify autism risk, not social communication disorder, so it may overrepresent children with autism-like features. Likely social communication disorder was not a confirmed diagnosis; the ADI-R subset did not cover all DSM-5 criteria, including inference and nonliteral language. There is no agreed gold-standard assessment for social communication disorder, and experts disagree on how it relates to autism. Groups were not adjusted for sex, maternal education, or race/ethnicity, which differed between groups. The language test used did not measure higher-order skills such as inferencing or understanding ambiguous language. Participants were young children, so findings may not apply to older children or adolescents. Some children with likely social communication disorder may have had other psychiatric conditions that were not examined.
Declared interests
The underlying SEED study was funded by the CDC. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat likely social communication disorder as a confirmed diagnosis or use the ADI-R subset as a validated test for it. The study did not assess all social communication disorder criteria, the sample was selected for autism risk, and no adjustment was made for sex, education, or race/ethnicity.