The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is an instrument that is commonly used to screen for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) frequently occurs with ASD and both disorders share some phenotypic similarities. In the present study, we aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the French version of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and its 5 subscales (social awareness, social cognition, social communication, social motivation, and autistic mannerisms) to discriminate between children with ADHD and those with ASD (differential diagnosis) and children with ADHD from those with a dual diagnosis of ADHD and ASD (comorbid diagnosis).

SRS total scores and the 5 subscores of the SRS were compared between 4 groups of children: ADHD (n=32), ASD+ADHD (n=30), ASD (n=31) and typical neurodevelopment (TD; n=30) children. The discriminant validity was estimated using the Area Under the ROC Curves (AUC).

SRS Social cognition (AUC=0.73) and Autistic mannerisms (AUC=0.70) subscores were the most discriminating for differential diagnosis of ASD and ADHD. SRS total scores (AUC=0.70), and Social communication (AUC=0.66) and Autistic mannerisms (AUC=0.75) subscores were the most discriminating for comorbid diagnosis of ASD among ADHD children.

The SRS autistic mannerisms subscore was found to be clinically relevant for both differential diagnosis of ASD and ADHD and comorbid diagnoses of ASD among ADHD children but with a modest discriminant power.