Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi folks,
Having a lot of problems during my life from being a child with being unable to mix socially and having terrible anxiety I decided at the an advanced age to ask to be referred for an autism assessment.
I was given the same test as I believe a lot of others have gone through, book with flying frogs, asked to create a story etc
I also filled in the quiz's as well, and was told they were borderline as regards the spectrum.
Anyway it seems I flew through the test with the flying frogs book and was told that it was a multi-disciplinary assessment and I was told I didn't have autism.
To be honest I was relieved about this, but at the same time concerned that these particular tests might not accurately be the right criteria to determine whether a person has autism or not for the following reasons.
1 I do believe that a good number of people if picked from a random number of people off the street might not have the creative ability to construct a story from these tests, and it could well be because of that would be diagnosed with autism, where in fact they are not on the spectrum.
2 Are autism people somehow not allowed to be creative?
3 from the age perspective even people with autism can develop a coping strategy as they get a lot older ( I certainly have) and because of this the tests might not accurately diagnose the condition.
I would appreciate your thoughts on the above.
Many thanks.
Hello!
I've never heard of this frog story thing but it sounds pretty outdated in terms of autistic testing. I was diagnosed a few months ago and I am composer with a music degree, so creativity is definitely allowed within autistics! It's how I express myself. My little brother however is also autistic and can't write a creative story to save his life. People are different, including autistics! There has been research into something called the "Intense World Theory" and discusses the idea that rather than having/feeling no empathy (as the stereotype goes) autistics actually feel much more than a neuortypical and therefore get overwhelmed with it, leading to shutdowns and meltdowns. With new research like this it's clear that there isn't one profile for autism, yes there are some diagnostic traits that have to be there with an emphasis on sensory struggles, but in terms of personality traits and creativity I think there needs to be some readjustment!
(I am also a female so of course that is different too)