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Friday, 15 November 2013

Autism Spectrum Quotient

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By Jack Morgan


Autism Spectrum Quotient is a questionnaire which was published in the year 2001. This questionnaire is commonly abbreviated as AQ. It was published by Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues. They published the questionnaire at autism research center which is based in United Kingdom at a place called Cambridge. It contains fifty questions which aim at establishing as to whether adults of average intelligence have got symptoms of autism.

Autism Spectrum Quotient for children and adolescents has been published of late. Just like the AQ of adults, the version for children and adolescents is also aimed at investigating whether they have any sign of autism spectrum conditions. The test was made popular by Wired when it was published together with their article by the name, "The Greedy Syndrome". This took place in the year 2001.

The authors cited a score of 32 or more as indicating "clinically substantial levels of autistic traits". Although the test is popularly employed for self-proper diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, the authors caution that it is not intended to be analysis, and recommend that anybody who acquires a high credit rating and it is struggling some problems need to look for health-related advice just before bouncing to the conclusions.

The test was first tried on students from Cambridge University plus a group of British Mathematical Olympiad winners who totaled to sixteen. The aim of this teat was to establish as to whether there was there was a link between the student's talent for scientific disciplines, mathematical disciplines and the traits which are associated with the autism spectrum.

It's also frequently accustomed to evaluate milder variations of the autistic-like characteristics in typically creating visitors to investigate continuum theory of the autism spectrum problem. The test consists of 50 statements, each of which can be in a forced choice format. Each concern allows the subject to indicate "certainly agree", "slightly disagree" "slightly agree", or "definitely differ". Roughly fifty percent the queries are written to elicit an "agree" reply from neurotypical people, and one half to elicit a "disagree" reply. The topic results one point for each query which is answered "autistically" sometimes slightly or absolutely.

The subject who is considered autistic has trouble understanding in communication and social. There is no exact cure of the disorder. However, it is very possible to manage the obvious symptoms and this can be done with behavioral treatment. The absence of social skills does not mean they are rude; instead, they have trouble understanding with social indications.

The Autism Spectrum Quotient Test is always consisted of 50 statements. These statements are put in a forced choice format. Each question in the questionnaire allows the interviewee to choose definitely agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree and definitely disagree. The interviewee scores one point for each of the questions which are answered definitely or slightly in an autistic manner.

The questions in the AQ test cover all the five different fields which are associated with Autism Spectrum. These fields include imagination, social skills, attention of switching, attention to detail and communication. The authors of Autism Spectrum Quotient advise that any person who scores a high mark and he or she is not suffering from distress should seek medical advice from a professional before making any conclusions.




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