The Autism Spectrum Quotient: Children's Version (AQ-Child).
The AQ-Child gives you a fast, parent-friendly way to spot autism traits in young kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Auyeung et al. (2008) tested a 50-item parent form called the AQ-Child. The form asks about a child’s social skills, attention to detail, and imagination.
Parents of kids with and without autism filled it out. The study set a cut-off score of 76 to flag likely autism traits.
What they found
The AQ-Child cleanly split the two groups. Most kids with autism scored above 76. Most typical kids scored below.
The tool was reliable and rarely gave false alarms.
How this fits with other research
Wakabayashi et al. (2007) ran the same 50 items in Japan and saw the same split. This gives confidence the form works across cultures.
Sun et al. (2019) took the AQ-Child into Chinese and added boy and girl cut-offs. They showed that using different cut-offs boosts accuracy.
Sonié et al. (2013) moved the AQ up to teens in France. They kept high accuracy but had to drop the cut-off to 26. Same tool, new age band.
Why it matters
If you need a quick screen for autism traits in 4- to 11-year-olds, hand the AQ-Child to parents. Score it in five minutes. A score of 76 or higher tells you to refer on. If you work with girls or non-English speakers, grab the sex-specific or translated versions that came later—they fine-tune the cut-offs and keep the same solid accuracy.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Autism Spectrum Quotient-Children's Version (AQ-Child) is a parent-report questionnaire that aims to quantify autistic traits in children 4-11 years old. The range of scores on the AQ-Child is 0-150. It was administered to children with an autism spectrum condition (ASC) (n = 540) and a general population sample (n = 1,225). Results showed a significant difference in scores between those with an ASC diagnosis and the general population. Receiver-operating-characteristic analyses showed that using a cut-off score of 76, the AQ-Child has high sensitivity (95%) and specificity (95%). The AQ-Child showed good test-retest reliability and high internal consistency. Factor analysis provided support for four of the five AQ-Child design subscales. Future studies should evaluate how the AQ-C performs in population screening.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2008 · doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0504-z