Social Communication Assessment Record Form
SCARF

By

Jesus M. Pichardo, Jr., PhD

Megan Foley-Nicpon, PhD

​SCARF is a new tool to help you: (a.) confirm the presence of pragmatic language disorders (i.e., DSM-5’s Social Communication Disorder), (b.) verify the criterion for “persistent deficits in social communication” related to Autism (Spectrum) Disorder (DSM-5 and IDEA) and (c.) determine that a speech-language referral is needed due to case complexity. As such, with just ten parent-completed items (plus 4 items regarding impairment) SCARF serves as a narrowband measure with norm-based standard scores (N = 500) as well as a screener with empirically validated cut-scores (Sensitivity = .84; Specificity = .89). These features make SCARF a unique addition to the toolkit of psychologists working with children (age 5 to 18) in schools and clinics. The manual contains details on its use, reliability and validity information, and illustrative cases.