Assessing autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental conditions in preschoolers through the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) with remote data collection

BACKGROUND Screening is now worldwide recognised as essential for early detection of neurodevelopmental divergences, and telemedicine is increasingly proving to be a valuable resource in this area. Our retrospective observational study aimed to assess the ability of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ 2–4) as a measure to distinguish autism spectrum disorder from other neurodevelopmental disorders in clinical and typically developing populations of preschoolers by remote data collection. METHODS Data from 343 preschoolers, including 93 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 28 neurotypical children (NT), 167 children with developmental language disorder (DLD), and 55 children with developmental delay (DD), were collected through the MEDea Information and Clinical Assessment on-Line (MedicalBIT) platform. RESULTS Our results showed higher scores on all SDQ 2–4 scales for the ASD group vs the NT group, except for a scale scored in reverse (Prosocial Behaviour Scales) that had lower scores in children with ASD than NT children. Total Problems, Peer Problems, Hyperactivity, and Prosocial Behaviour Scales could more significantly differentiate the ASD group from the NT group. When comparing ASD group with other neurodevelopmental conditions (DLD, DD), the most significant results were found for the Total Problems, Peer Problems and Prosocial Behaviour Scales. CONCLUSIONS We concluded that these scales were more effective in differentiating children with autism spectrum disorder from children with developmental language disorder and from children with developmental delay, as well as from neurotypical children. We proved the SDQ 2–4 to be a valid short screening tool for use in preschoolers, to differentiate between ASD and other conditions by remote data collection.