Online Apsergers Tests

cheers scorpion

Cool.

I hope your quest is a succesful one.

Hey Scorpion,

Went to see the GP on friday and I am now waiting another assesment. Ihis time I went with my partner. I had already sent the GP a 12 page letter to explain it all as I just didn't want to nod and smile and just get it all wrong. Then be really annoyed and frustrated afterwards. The GP was pretty understanding and helpful but it was still really unpleasant.

As to the book thing. I just am really interested to find out about characters intentions. .

Jon said:

I am going to read 'The Demolished Man' by Alfred Bester. I will try to be aware of what I am thinking regarding the characters intentions.

One thing to remember, Jon, is that Autism is a spectrum disorder, which means, in part, that one doesn't have to have all the characteristics of autism to be on the spectrum, somewhere!

Or, in other words, just because you can discern a character's feelings and intentions in a book does not mean you don't have Autism - it just means you don't have that trait of autism.

(also, given how much you're questioning things, I, personally, would suggest that you do seek a formal diagnosis, so you can at least put one part of the puzzle in place (otherwise it's like trying to put together a very complex, and abstract, jigsaw without a picture))

Amy said:

I do know what number 20 means though. Or, I think I do so I willl try to explain.  
When I did my ADOS test one part in it was a picture book about this boy having a dream.. (I think!) and the person doing the test said what was happening at the start and I had to explain the rest, so what is happening and how the boy felt. All I know is it confused me! But, what I think the question is asking is if you are able to work out how a character feels about something and what they intend to do about it.  I agree with what you say though. I never read stories because I can't understand them so that's one way to avoid the problem.

I think I could easily make up the rest of a story. I am not sure how easy it would be to guess what the boy was actually feeling and what he was going to do unless there were obvious indications. For example:

• if he was at a bus stop I would guess he was waiting for a bus. It would be hard to know if the bus was going to arrive or not though. 
• if someone had pushed him over I think he might be upset, or angry or even hurt badly or not get up.

...the more I think about all this, the more fascinating it gets. I am going to read 'The Demolished Man' by Alfred Bester. I will try to be aware of what I am thinking regarding the characters intentions.

...for some reason I hadn't got an email to say this post had new comments...maybe its yahoo....?

That is stange (and interesting) about 23.

Talking of patterns, i once did a painting that was made up of two 1m sq canvases. It was abstract. The canvases wound fit together on any side to create a different composition. Each was basically a 'tile'. Not quite sure what the actual point was, apart from I got quite into the exercise.

I think the tests are a good way of screening. When I was referred the clinic sent me an application type form and also the AQ and EQ tests to complete and an RQ for my mother to fill in. 

With the Autism Quotient test the maximum is 50, 80% of AS patients score 32 or more I got 41. The Empathy Quotient test maximum is 80, 80% of AS patients score 30 or less I got 11, Relatives Questionnaire (formerly known as childhood asperger syndrome test) maximum score is 31, 87.5% of children with AS score 15 or more, my score was 26.

Einfallspinsel said:

I once watched a movie where someone grew increasingly paranoid and he noticed the number 23 everywhere (even where it wasn't) and thought the illuminati were after him... That's the only thing I associate with 23, is that what you meant?

Sort of. That movie is based on something much, much, older. 23 is considered a 'magic' number by some, and, interestingly, has been shown, statistically, to crop up more frequently than any other two-digit numerical combination.

@scorpion0x17 What! I fell for that didn't I. I recall that the key to calculate the result only had two lines, I could have noticed that myself. Tsk. 

I once watched a movie where someone grew increasingly paranoid and he noticed the number 23 everywhere (even where it wasn't) and thought the illuminati were after him... That's the only thing I associate with 23, is that what you meant?

Einfallspinsel said:

[quote]

I wasn't really sure about some of the questions though:

• 23. I notice patterns in things all the time. I am not sure what this means. If its to do with numbers then I don't think so.
  

[/quote]

I hadn't noticed before that that question is number 23...

(don't worry if you don't understand the significance of that)

oh and, @einfallspinsell: it doesn't matter wether you choose between 'slightly' and 'definitely' just whether you choose between 'yes' and 'no'! (I think they only have the slightly and definitely thing because you're more likely to choose the 'right' 'slightly' answer on those 'I don't understand' or 'I don't know' questions, if you see what I mean).

Hmmmm... When it asks about enjoying fiction: Does scifi count as fiction, therefore, yes? But I don't read any non-scifi fiction at all, therefore, no...?

Jon said:

I wasn't really sure about some of the questions though:

• 23. I notice patterns in things all the time. I am not sure what this means. If its to do with numbers then I don't think so.
  

Numbers is another question. I think this one means other patterns: For example, today I stared at a large ad on the bus, and the background image was rows and columns of 20x10 shoes, shot from 3 angles and mirrored; there were only 6 different shoes overall, so each shoe occured several times, and the rows were symmetrical, etc... No clue what the ad was selling, I only looked at the background...

Many printed things (tiles, bus seat covers, plastic bags, wallpapers, textiles) have repeating patterns, it's a fun game to find their base tile, but if I were a superhero, my cryptonite would be Penrose Tiles...

I can make a suggestion as to why your score got higher. Its becasue you undersatnd yourself more. Until you really look at yourself you have years of overlays and adaptations that you use to 'fit in' or explain yourself. As you become more familiar with your 'condition' you allow yourself to see things more clearly.

Oh. That's actually quite a good theory. The first time I took it, I didn't get the point of half the questions, and often chose "slightly". I took it again and again over the last decade, and chose "definitely" more and more often...

PS: I oscillate between 33 and 44.

PPS: Re 45, neurotypicals often claim that they can "see right though" someone, and they say "I know what you are going to say", or "you won't do that" etc, even if they are wrong they insist they usually get it right...

Sorry everyone!  Well pointed out Scorpian that I wrote 58 not 48. sorry 

I was like you with some questions Jon. I just took a guess/clicked any box so my result may not be as acurate as it was if I knew what all the questions ment. 

I do know what number 20 means though. Or, I think I do so I willl try to explain.  
When I did my ADOS test one part in it was a picture book about this boy having a dream.. (I think!) and the person doing the test said what was happening at the start and I had to explain the rest, so what is happening and how the boy felt. All I know is it confused me! But, what I think the question is asking is if you are able to work out how a character feels about something and what they intend to do about it.  I agree with what you say though. I never read stories because I can't understand them so that's one way to avoid the problem.

I hope that helped-sorry I cannot explain any of the others you ask about. 

To scorpion: I first got it from embarising bodies (I was looking for something completly different with no sucess!) and came across this page. http://www.channel4embarrassingillnesses.com/conditions/autism-and-asperger-syndrome/ If you folow the link to take the test it does go to the same one mentiond at the start of this. 

I used this only a few days ago. I already know I have Autism (it's a bit confused still-We suspect I have high functioning autism but all we deffinatly know is that I do not have asperger syndrome and I scored on the spectrum) 

I saw it on the channel 4 website when looking for something else and went on it just out of interest. I scored 48 which makes sence since in the report from my ADOS test  their were problems in every area you could imagine. 

So, I would say it is good and insteresting to use from my experience of it. 

when i was asked these things off the net i really dint get them i found them very hard to answer them so the screening test was a bit of a fail i guess never mind. 

Scorpion, I can make a suggestion as to why your score got higher. Its becasue you undersatnd yourself more. Until you really look at yourself you have years of overlays and adaptations that you use to 'fit in' or explain yourself. As you become more familiar with your 'condition' you allow yourself to see things more clearly. So you are not becoming more autistic, just allowing yourself to become more yourself (autistic). or something like that......which could be said a whole lot better by someone else....

Amy said:

I scored 58 which makes sence since in the report from my ADOS test  their were problems in every area you could imagine.

That's impressive, given that it's impossible to score more than 50!

But, I'm guessing you did a slightly different test, or they scored it differently - do you happen know where on the Channel 4 website it was?

@Jon - 35 is definately within the 'indicative of being on the spectrum' range, but, as the site says it's not a diagnostic test, also I wouldn't worry about the meanings of any of the individual questions - all the questions have equal weight, so the answers you give to three or four of make very little difference to your 'score'.

Oh, and, if you're interested, I've done this test numerous times, and last time I did it (just the other day) I 'scored' 45, iirc (though I seem to recall the first time I did it I scored lower, so maybe I'm becoming more autistic!  (though doing it again just now I scored 33!))

Scorpion, I got 35 on the test......not quite your 58 Amy  

I wasn't really sure about some of the questions though:

• 20. When I'm reading a story, I find it difficult to work out the characters' intentions. I am not sure that anyone can work out the intentions as only the writer would know what was going to happen.
• 23. I notice patterns in things all the time. I am not sure what this means. If its to do with numbers then I don't think so.
  
• 45. I find it difficult to work out people's intentions. I can't think of any situations where I would be able to work out peoples intentions. I could tell if someone was going to turn right in there car because they would be indicating right. Or that some one was going to play tennis because they were walking to the liesure centre with a tennis racket.
• 50. I find it very easy to play games with children that involve pretending. thats tricky because I don't like playing with children or even meet many. I do remeber making up songs and being silly with my neice. I would put on accent and she would copy, so that is sort of pretending. And there might be a narrarative. I just don't have much to draw on. On the oter hand it is hard work so that means its not easy. Then again I think playing with children can be tiring for anyone maybe.

thats the thing with questionairres for anything, the questions often seem a bit unclear as you can't get clarification on what they mean.

Jon said:

www.wired.com/.../aqtest.html

As a screening test that's about as credible as they get - it was developed by Simon Baron Cohen - a, if not the, leading authority in all things 'Asperger' and 'Autism' in the UK - at the Autism Research Center in Cambridge.

Out of interest, Jon, what 'score' do you get on that test?

This test is good in my experience and reading the literature, and it is one part of a  3 part test set. I used it and the other 2 parts to do a limited form of self daignosis.