# Development of a standardized measure of social-communication abilities for children with neurodevelopmental disorders

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2021 · $585,648

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Significant progress has been made in the development and refinement of diagnostic measures for
autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, these measures do not capture fine-grained changes in social-
communication that occur over time or in response to treatment. Existing measures of social-communication
are also strongly influenced by developmental level, thus making scores difficult to compare across children
with ASD or other neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) who differ in age and ability. Given the wide range of
cognitive abilities observed in children with ASD, and recent advances in the identification of multiple genetic
syndromes associated with ASD and varying levels of intellectual disability, there is increasing need for
measures that assess social-communication abilities while accounting for development (both age and IQ). The
lack of instruments to quantify social-communication ability relative to developmental level and sensitive to
incremental change poses a major obstacle for treatment studies in particular.
 The specific objective of the proposed research is to create and validate a measure of social-
communication ability that can be used to describe baseline levels of ability and subsequent stability or change
in children with ASD and other NDDs. Scores will be standardized within specific developmental cells (age x
IQ), thus pre-emptively managing the substantial measurement challenges caused by variability in how
behaviors manifest in children of different ages and abilities. The new measure will be specifically designed to
be sensitive to gains associated with the continuation of development, as well as to incremental treatment-
related improvements in skills that may be obscured by broad measures of impairment (e.g., diagnostic tools).
Phase 1 of the project will involve analyses of existing ASD symptom measures from more than 10,000
assessments of children with ASD (n=7,838), non-ASD NDD (n=1,595), or typical development (TD) (n=636) in
order to identify constructs that are most relevant to social-communication ability within developmental cells,
and that are maximally responsive to developmental changes. Items will be written from the identified
constructs and designed for a computer-adaptive testing format (CAT). This will allow for complex skip patterns
that tailor content within particular developmental windows, and will facilitate web-based distribution of the tool.
During Phase 2, the candidate item pool will be administered via computer- or tablet-based administration to
parents of children with ASD or other NDDs across multiple clinical sites (projected ASD n=930, projected non-
ASD NDD n=670), and via the internet to parents of non-clinically referred children (projected n=400), in order
to evaluate the dimensionality of the proposed new measure (Phase 2a), and cross-validate and calibrate the
items that perform as expected (Phase 2b). In Phase 3, the final item bank will be field tested via the CA...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10198960
- **Project number:** 5R01HD093012-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Somer L. Bishop
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $585,648
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-15 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10198960

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10198960, Development of a standardized measure of social-communication abilities for children with neurodevelopmental disorders (5R01HD093012-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10198960. Licensed CC0.

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