Why are only some children with autism spectrum disorder misclassified by the social communication questionnaire? An empirical investigation of individual differences in sensitivity and specificity in a clinic-referred sample.

The findings suggest that non-autistic developmental and behavioral individual difference characteristics may explain high rates of misclassification using the SCQ. Clinicians and researchers could consider using the SCQ in combination with other tools for young children with internalizing and externalizing symptoms and other more complex clinical presentations.