New Autism Assessment

There is a new autism assessment called the Monotropism Questionnaire (MQ) that experts are saying is the best assessment of autism to date.

It is available for anyone to access and can be used for research purposes. The questionnaire has 47 statements and you rate how much you agree or disagree with them. The total score out of 47 tells you how monotropic you are. Monotropism is the only known theory of autism developed by an autistic person - Dinah Murray, as well as some others.

Monotropism is a person's tendency to focus their attention on a small number of interests at any time, tending to miss things outside of this attention tunnel. This cognitive strategy is posited to be the central underlying feature of autism.

This test also accounts for ADHD. This is because people with ADHD and autism tend to be more monotropic than a neurotypical person. If you have both autism and ADHD, then you will have the highest score on this test.

3 statements from the questionnaire prompt you to agree or disagree:

1) I find sudden unexpected disruptions to my attention startling.

2) Involvment in an activity of interest offten reduces my anxiety level.

3) I often avoid talking because I cannot reliably predict how others will react.

These questions are relative.

For instance, a person with monotropism whose cognitive function can be easily impaired from something out of their control can be indicated from statement #1. Alternatively, statement #2 can determine if a person is focusing on their interests and having a positive experience from that.

Takers of the questionnaire have reported that this is the first ASD questionnaire where the wording of the statements themselves did not offend or upset them, but rather helped them to feel validated.

The test is still awaiting peer review.