What does the task of reading that frog book test specifically?

Hiya Zuriiix  and everyone else. :-)

I agree with you about child test for adults being a bit dull and as Cinnabar_wing picks up on maybe a little demeaning.

At the risk of over-focus on one response what Cinnabar_wing   highlights about "blanking" the peri-assessment period by dissociation somewhat (have come now to realise this happens a lot in times of what the psychologists call "cognitive dissonance" - where there is a big switch in how one sees the world possible but the "facts" are really difficult to match up).

The response have also triggered a bit of research (yes I appreciate the irony :-)  ) and reflection by myself on whether one is allowed to talk about the test tasks specifically. 

From this, I haven't been able to identify specific rules of the forum which indicate this (moderator please correct me if I am wrong!).  Except that we are all restricted from medically over reaching in respect of making formal diagnoses of one another of course.

Overall I think that the peer support process I have found in the forum helps demystify the tests rather than trying to dismantle them or "game" the system.

Here's a "deeper dive" if interested.

As for the "pros and cons" of pre-assessment research:

Pros:

Personally I found that as a "high masking" autistic person researching a lot pre-assessment helped me "rehearse the scripts" of things that otherwise my default masking behaviour might try to hide from other people (and most sadly perhaps - myself... )

I had some pretty severe concerns that my underlying "condition" was potentially a psychiatric one - finding out about the tests, what they meant and how they were "me" went some way to reassuring me pre-diagnosis that was less likely and enabled me to self-advocate.

This reduced self blame.

Cons

I got a bit too "hooked up on it" with intrusive thoughts and i got unsure if I was exaggerating my autism.  This got me stuck in a bit of a loop of self doubt.  (punchline of a joke with a baby polar bear saying: " If I'm really a polar bear why am i so blooming cold!)  I found to start with that "knowing the behaviour was there I kind-of got caught in the trap of someone telling me not to look at someone's nose...  obviously the first thing you want to do is look at it!!

So this blended into over-analysis and maybe made the stress increase.

There may also be a risk that the "echo chamber" of people saying things to someone makes them believe something that the formal tests might not reveal.  And I have identified a few people on the forum talking about how upsetting it was to have come to believe one is autistic before assessment but the assessment turns out not to say they are...  I believe this could be pretty distressing for some people.

Then there's the "gaming" the test bit...

well, since other people are involved in giving information to the assessment - by explaining their experiences of the person - unless they are "trained and skilled" in gaming the result too that changes the potential bias back.

Yep, as other good people in the thread have said - the test is not about self reporting only - it is about observations the tester makes of the individual being tested.

There is "gaming" bit is perhaps the strangest one.

I must admit i still personally get hung up on it.  (hehe maybe I'm the baby polar bear :-)  ).  I personally find it tricky sometimes to tell the difference between the masking behaviour being a survival/coping mechanism and something I do for personal reward - intentionally deceiving someone.  It has taken a long time for me to acknowledge that masking is maybe weirdly a subconscious thing that one does consciously.  The biggest thing I have had to get my head around is just how much hard work the masking is - the testors are trained to identify this.  I suspect that someone who might be intentionally out to deceive might by their nature do so as easily as a fish swims in water - personally I find deceiving someone (except in jest or good faith) incredibly hard to do.

So as for intentionally "gaming" the tests - unlikely.

As for getting me to not research something I'm interested in - and maybe this is the same for some other autistic people - well, my monotropism+stress makes me "deep dive" every time.  Autism diagnosis for me was a stressful time.  I had to research under the circumstances - and think questions such as you have posed and the answers it generates were for my particular "spiky autism profile" essential (hehe a several hundred word response to your thread proves that maybe?)

So, Zuriiix if you want to explore further what the test are "about" with respect to autism maybe consider the pro's and con's I've shared here - then maybe that'll help you decide :-)

It's not like the first rule of autism club is that we don't talk about autism club (to reference the movie)  I like intellectual debate (maybe it's a bit like sparring) but really dislike fighting!

Best Wishes

Phased

Haha I think I just doubled down on my social act during my session. I made sure that I made consistent eye contact and avoided stimming, maybe it was just mental pressure or something. But by the end of it, I was so uncomfortable that I ended up needing a few seconds looking off the horizon to muster anything. Obviously I don’t have any clue if I actually have ASD, so I don’t know what any of this alludes to (if anything at all) but I did way better on the practical tasks rather than those question bits.

Haha I think I just doubled down on my social act during my session. I made sure that I made consistent eye contact and avoided stimming, maybe it was just mental pressure or something. But by the end of it, I was so uncomfortable that I ended up needing a few seconds looking off the horizon to muster anything. Obviously I don’t have any clue if I actually have ASD, so I don’t know what any of this alludes to (if anything at all) but I did way better on the practical tasks rather than those question bits.