Can anyone help me re Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ)

[notfromaroundhere]

Hi all

I posted a couple of months ago about my DS1 (3) being referred for a Multi-disciplinary Assessment and I had many helpful responses. We have seen the Community paediatrician since and now have a date for the assessment (15th December).

The paediatrician gave me the Social Communication Questionnaire to complete and I am really struggling with it. I am probably guilty for over-thinking the questions but at the same time I feel very uneasy about just ticking a box when I am not sure the answer falls into a yes/no category.

The questions that have got me in a twist are along the lines of
Has he ever used words that he seems to have invited or made up himself? There is only 1 that I could say yes to as he used to call his breakfast "Bowl-tea" and we adopted it too rather than correct it. I am not sure if this would count IYKWIM.

There is also a page of questions referring to when the child was 4/5 and it states if your DC is not yet 4 to think back over the past year, however, I am not sure that would give an accurate picture for things like playing imaginitve games with other children etc as he has just turned 3 so all info would be based on him aged 2.

As it is a scoring questionnaire I can't see there would be any value in only completing the answers I can do which is what the secretary told me to do when she chased it up. She just wanted all the paperwork together so wasn't terribly interested in my views on it.

Any thoughts/suggestions/advice would be appreciated

Thanks

i'm curretly filling in a
"pragmatics profile" for ds. i like the format because it's all very open ended - you just describe how he responds in various situations.

i think that "bowl-tea" would definietly count as an invented word (i love it actually!! i can imagine i'll be thinking "bowl-tea" over my bran flakes tomorrow!)

for the page of questions for 4/5 years old, i would just answer what his most recent example was. so, for example if he played an imaginative game yesterday, use that. if the most recent example was from a year ago, use that. the most recent information would be the most useful, i'd imagine. if there are some things that he has never done, then it'll be important to note that down too.

hope that makes sense. i'm probably rambling as usual!

thanks for your reply, we're very found of Bowl-tea too although he only uses it now when he tries to charm 2nd's and 3rds out of us at breakfast time .

I think I would do better with a more open ended form as I'm not sure DS1 fits neatly in yes or no boxes... I am making progress with it just 2 questions to go...

thanks again