Evaluating the rate of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder in children at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

ABSTRACT

In the present study, we examined the rate of DSM-5 Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SCD) symptoms and diagnoses in a sample of school-aged youth at risk for ASD. Diagnostic evaluations were performed on 254 participants who had previously screened at risk for ASD via the Social Communication Questionnaire-Lifetime Version (SCQ). While 19 participants met all four clinical criteria for SCD, 18 of these (95%) also met criteria for DSM-5 ASD, effectively ruling out an SCD diagnosis. The one participant who met the criteria for SCD met DSM-IV criteria for PDD-NOS but did not meet DSM-5 criteria for ASD due to RRBs in only one category. Given the high proportion of at-risk youth with social communication impairment, it is essential that interventions be developed and made more readily available to individuals both with and without diagnoses of ASD.

Compliance with ethical standards

All procedures performed in this study were done in accordance with the ethical standards and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Medical University of South Carolina. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Autism Speaks [7793,8408]; National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities [CDC- RFA-DD10-1002]; National Institutes of Health [UL1TR001450].