Development and Psychometric Validation of the Questionnaire for Social Communication in Young Autistic Learners (Q-SoCiAL)-Verbal Version.
Katherine M Walton, Alayna Borowy, Jolynn Pek and 2 others
A new 46-item parent questionnaire for autistic children ages 2–6 (using more than 10 words) showed strong reliability and reasonable validity.
It is not yet proven to detect treatment change, so do not use it as a sole outcome measure in intervention studies.
Key findings
1The 46-item measure showed excellent internal consistency (α = 0.98) and high test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.96) over a 12-day interval.
2The one-factor solution showed acceptable model fit (RMSEA = 0.079, CFI = 0.948), supporting a simple sum score for clinical use.
3After controlling for age, non-autistic children scored significantly higher than autistic children (p < .001), with the gap smallest in the highest language group where non-autistic scores approached ceiling.
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What it does not show
Sensitivity to change has not been tested in any longitudinal or treatment study, so it cannot yet be confirmed as an intervention outcome measure. Convergent and divergent validity evidence rests on only 19 children, which is too small to draw firm conclusions about what the measure overlaps with or distinguishes from other tools. The sample is limited to children using more than 10 spontaneous words; preverbal children (about 23% of those recruited) were excluded, and a separate version for them is still in development. The online sample was predominantly white (73% of parents, 80% of non-autistic caregivers) and non-Hispanic, and measurement invariance across racial, ethnic, and language subgroups has not been tested. The 46 items cover 21 facets but only 1–2 items per facet, so the measure would need to be paired with curricular or more detailed tools for full treatment planning.
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