Autism: Recommended Resources
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What if Autism Criteria For Adults Were Written by Autistic Adults?
What is Autism? DSM 5-TR Checklist
🌐 Alexithymia is a personality construct that is characterized by the (subclinical) inability to identify and describe emotions in the self. In a broad sense, it denotes emotion-processing problems.
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Level 1: Requiring support
The person can generally communicate and function independently, but autism creates noticeable problems, particularly in social situations, flexibility, organization, or navigating everyday demands.
They may:
Speak in full sentences and have conversations, but struggle with the natural back-and-forth of conversation.
Have difficulty knowing how to enter a conversation, make friends, or maintain relationships.
Miss or misunderstand social cues that seem obvious to other people.
Have strong preferences for routines or particular ways of doing things.
Struggle significantly with transitions, switching tasks, planning, or organization.
Function fairly independently, but things are harder than they appear from the outside and support makes a meaningful difference.
Level 2: Requiring substantial support
The person has more obvious and consistent difficulties with social communication and flexibility. These difficulties are noticeable to other people and interfere with functioning in multiple areas of life, even when some support is available.
They may:
Communicate verbally, but their communication may be limited, unusual, or difficult for others to follow.
Have significant difficulty with back-and-forth interaction.
Primarily talk about or engage with a narrow range of interests.
Have noticeably unusual nonverbal communication, such as eye contact, gestures, facial expressions, or body language.
Become significantly distressed when routines change or expectations are disrupted.
Have repetitive behaviors or highly focused interests that interfere with everyday activities.
Need substantial support to navigate school, work, relationships, daily living, or transitions.
Level 3: Requiring very substantial support
The person has severe difficulties with social communication and significant difficulty coping with everyday change. These challenges substantially limit their ability to function independently.
They may:
Use very few spoken words or have speech that is difficult to understand.
Rarely initiate interaction with other people.
Respond very little to attempts by others to engage them.
Have very limited ability to communicate their wants, needs, or experiences socially.
Have extreme difficulty with changes in routine, expectations, or activities.
Experience significant distress when asked to shift attention or change what they are doing.
Have repetitive behaviors or restricted interests that profoundly interfere with everyday functioning.
Require extensive support across many areas of daily life.
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📚Me and My PDA: A Guide to Pathological Demand Avoidance for Young People
📚Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome: My Daughter is Not Naughty
🌐 Checklist for Self-Identifying Signs of Pathological Demand Avoidance
🎧 Podcast: Resistance and Resilience (two adults talking about their experience as PDA'ers, which is rare because discourse is centered around children)
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Request workplace accommodations (flexible schedule, remote work, minimal in-person meetings).
Prepare for office transitions by communicating sensory needs to supervisors.
Utilize resources like the Job Accommodation Network for guidance.
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I recommend picking any 2 or 3 and if your results are interesting, take more of them :)
Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) – A brief self-report questionnaire that explores autistic traits across areas such as social communication, attention switching, attention to detail, communication, and imagination.The Aspie Quiz - A questionnaire that measures both autistic and neurotypical traits in five domains: talent, perception, communication, relationship, and social.
Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q) – A self-report measure that examines the extent to which a person masks, compensates for, or adapts their autistic traits in social situations.
Ritvo Autism & Asperger Diagnostic Scale (RAADS-14) – A brief screening questionnaire designed to identify autistic characteristics in adults, particularly those whose traits may have gone unrecognized earlier in life.
The Monotropism Questionnaire – A measure that explores a monotropic attention style, including deep focus, intense interests, and the tendency to concentrate on a limited number of interests or tasks at a time.
Adult Repetitive Behaviors Questionnaire-2 (RBQ-2A) – A questionnaire that assesses repetitive behaviors, routines, sensory interests, and preferences for sameness commonly associated with autism in adults.
Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) – A questionnaire that measures alexithymia, or the tendency to have difficulty identifying, describing, and distinguishing one's own emotions from physical sensations.
Please note: These questionnaires are screening tools designed to support self-reflection and discussion. They are not diagnostic and should be interpreted alongside a comprehensive clinical evaluation, developmental history, and your lived experience.
