Brief report: preliminary reliability, construct validity and standardization of the Auditory Behavior Questionnaire (ABQ) for children with autism spectrum disorders.

Egelhoff et al. (2013) built a short parent form that maps how kids with autism react to everyday sounds. The team wrote 24 plain-language items and gave the draft to parents of school-age children with ASD.

They ran a factor analysis and found four clean clusters: hyper-reactivity, hypo-reactivity, auditory seeking, and speech filtering. Internal consistency was high, so the four scores hang together well.

The Auditory Behavior Questionnaire (ABQ) earned an alpha of 0.94, showing strong reliability. The four-factor model matched the theory of sensory processing in autism.

Clinicians now have a quick way to turn parent observations into four numeric scores that describe auditory trouble spots.

Auyeung et al. (2008) paved the way with the AQ-Child, a 50-item parent scale for general autistic traits in younger kids. The ABQ narrows the lens to auditory issues for older youth, keeping the same high reliability.

Sobhy et al. (2022) later built an Arabic sensory questionnaire for preschoolers. Both studies landed on a four-factor structure, giving cross-language evidence that four domains capture sensory problems in ASD.

Kahng et al. (1999) created the ASSQ for school-age screening. The ABQ extends that line by drilling into one sensory system instead of broad social signs.

If a child covers his ears during group instruction, you can hand mom the 24-item ABQ, get four scores in minutes, and link them to intervention: noise-canceling headphones for hyper-reactivity, or amplification prompts for hypo-reactivity. The tool is free, short, and evidence-based, so you can add it to your intake packet tomorrow.