Communicative Skills Assessment Scale: Contributions to the Validation of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Background and aims: Speech-language pathologists actively participate in the assessment of pragmatics in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, in Portugal, there is a shortage of valid and reliable instruments to assess this domain in detail. Therefore, it was deemed relevant to help validate the Escala de Avaliação de Competências Comunicativas (EAC) (Communicative Skills Assessment Scale) in this population.

Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive correlational study was conducted. The sample included 97 children, aged between 4 and 7 years and 11 months, diagnosed with ASD with European Portuguese as their native language. As an exclusion criterion, the co-occurrence of intellectual developmental disorder was defined. The internal consistency of the EAC was analyzed through the calculation of Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability through the calculation of the intraclass correlation coefficient. Convergent validity was also analyzed using Spearman's correlation coefficient.

Results: The EAC presented a high internal consistency value, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.956. The test-retest reliability analysis (n = 27) revealed good stability in the participants' responses at both assessment moments, with ICC values varying between 0.642 and 0.842. In the study of convergent validity, statistically significant correlations were observed between the EAC total score and the two scales of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-Portuguese Version (SDQ-Por): relationship problems with colleagues (r_s = -0.273; p < .01) and prosocial behavior (r_s = 0.606; p < .01).

Conclusion: The EAC presents good reliability and validity for children with ASD, suggesting its adequacy as a research and clinical tool for testing pragmatics within this population.

Implications: This study will improve clinical decision making regarding ASD and guide future research.