What questions would you set for an online Autism test?

It must be difficult, in fairness, to set suitable questions for such tests. Most are reasonably decent and fitting, perhaps (often, it's the inflexibility of the multiple-choice answer options that bother me). But some of the questions & answer-options appear loaded, borderline prejudicial or assumptive. Some seem vaguely similar to this:

'If your parents caught fire, would you:

A. Pick your nose.

B. Buy popcorn.

C. Cry until your socks shrank.

D. Toast marshmallows.

E. Hit the firefighters with a mallet, thus confirming complacent opinions that all autists are empathy-free, violent sociopaths.'

If you, as an autist, had to set questions and possible answers, what might they be?

Parents

Ann :) over 2 years ago

I actually was sent a questionnaire today, not for autism diagnosis but by the eating disorder services but it was utterly useless and so ambiguous... It made me so frustrated I started annotating in red to explain why my answers didn't really reflect the situation and to give more explanation...

Pretty much all their questions are do you do xxxx to try to influence your weight and shape?

I do do or have done some of those things (like eating only a very limited range of foods or having some weird routines/patterns about eating/food) but NOT to influence my weight and shape.... For me it is all about fear of digestive issues/feeling nauseous/sick. It is about need for routine and predictability. Sensory sensitivities. Anxiety and my IBS.... So ultimately I essentially had to answer 0 (ie not at all) on all of their questions because the part about weight/shape does not apply at all.... So anyone with ARFID essentially will score 0 or close to that (ie having no eating disorder symptoms) based on their questionnaire...

Then they have all these other questions where they try to find out if people are unhappy with their weight and shape (but clearly they mean 'does this person feel they are fat')- I am super worried and upset at being so underweight but then when I answer those questions again it sends out completely the wrong message...

Plus lots of other ambiguities and questions that just do not apply.

I don't know who designs these questionnaires but I feel like because they always just ask people to tick things/ give a number, they never really get feedback about people feeling that the answers don't reflect the situation... They really should put in a box where people can comment about any issues with the questions- then they would maybe realise just how badly designed they are... but Why think so far if you can just get a neatly ticked form that can be tallied up...?? Not sure if that is the reason why these questionnaires are so poorly done but it is very frustrating....

And yes a lot of the autism ones that I filled out were also quite frustrating....

Reply

Ann :) over 2 years ago

I actually was sent a questionnaire today, not for autism diagnosis but by the eating disorder services but it was utterly useless and so ambiguous... It made me so frustrated I started annotating in red to explain why my answers didn't really reflect the situation and to give more explanation...

Pretty much all their questions are do you do xxxx to try to influence your weight and shape?

I do do or have done some of those things (like eating only a very limited range of foods or having some weird routines/patterns about eating/food) but NOT to influence my weight and shape.... For me it is all about fear of digestive issues/feeling nauseous/sick. It is about need for routine and predictability. Sensory sensitivities. Anxiety and my IBS.... So ultimately I essentially had to answer 0 (ie not at all) on all of their questions because the part about weight/shape does not apply at all.... So anyone with ARFID essentially will score 0 or close to that (ie having no eating disorder symptoms) based on their questionnaire...

Then they have all these other questions where they try to find out if people are unhappy with their weight and shape (but clearly they mean 'does this person feel they are fat')- I am super worried and upset at being so underweight but then when I answer those questions again it sends out completely the wrong message...

Plus lots of other ambiguities and questions that just do not apply.

I don't know who designs these questionnaires but I feel like because they always just ask people to tick things/ give a number, they never really get feedback about people feeling that the answers don't reflect the situation... They really should put in a box where people can comment about any issues with the questions- then they would maybe realise just how badly designed they are... but Why think so far if you can just get a neatly ticked form that can be tallied up...?? Not sure if that is the reason why these questionnaires are so poorly done but it is very frustrating....

And yes a lot of the autism ones that I filled out were also quite frustrating....

Children

Autonomistic over 2 years ago in reply to Ann :)

I hope they don't reject you because your score is too low, 'the computer says no'.

An experience like that does seem as if you've been referred to the wrong service, but the specialist services you need probably don't exist

Years ago I did a CBT course for social anxiety. None of the questions related to my reasons for being anxious in social situations. They all automatically assumed a fear of being judged which wasn't the case.