diff --git a/engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/semantics.dart b/engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/semantics.dart
index 55fb0367c5e..fe7a9ab3ce4 100644
--- a/engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/semantics.dart
+++ b/engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/semantics.dart
@@ -654,8 +654,11 @@ class SemanticsUpdateBuilder extends NativeFieldWrapperClass2 {
     Int32List childrenInHitTestOrder,
     Int32List additionalActions,
   }) {
-    if (transform.length != 16)
-      throw new ArgumentError('transform argument must have 16 entries.');
+    assert(_matrix4IsValid(transform));
+    assert(
+      scrollChildren == 0 || (scrollChildren > 0 && childrenInHitTestOrder != null),
+      'If a node has scrollChildren, it must have childrenInHitTestOrder',
+    );
     _updateNode(
       id,
       flags,
diff --git a/engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/semantics/semantics_update_builder.cc b/engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/semantics/semantics_update_builder.cc
index 16c4ed213a5..a5b94199c23 100644
--- a/engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/semantics/semantics_update_builder.cc
+++ b/engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/semantics/semantics_update_builder.cc
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 #include "flutter/lib/ui/semantics/semantics_update_builder.h"
 
+#include "third_party/skia/include/core/SkScalar.h"
 #include "third_party/tonic/converter/dart_converter.h"
 #include "third_party/tonic/dart_args.h"
 #include "third_party/tonic/dart_binding_macros.h"
@@ -63,6 +64,12 @@ void SemanticsUpdateBuilder::updateNode(
     const tonic::Int32List& childrenInTraversalOrder,
     const tonic::Int32List& childrenInHitTestOrder,
     const tonic::Int32List& localContextActions) {
+  FML_CHECK(transform.data() && SkScalarsAreFinite(*transform.data(), 9))
+      << "Semantics update transform was not set or not finite.";
+  FML_CHECK(scrollChildren == 0 ||
+            (scrollChildren > 0 && childrenInHitTestOrder.data()))
+      << "Semantics update contained scrollChildren but did not have "
+         "childrenInHitTestOrder";
   SemanticsNode node;
   node.id = id;
   node.flags = flags;