r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jan 30 '25

Neuroscience A low-cost tool accurately distinguishes neurotypical children from children with autism just by watching them copy the dance moves of an on-screen avatar for a minute. It can even tell autism from ADHD, conditions that commonly overlap.

https://newatlas.com/adhd-autism/autism-motion-detection-diagnosis/
7.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

476 comments sorted by

View all comments

808

u/AllanfromWales1 MA | Natural Sciences | Metallurgy & Materials Science Jan 30 '25

Does it work for adults? I was never tested as a child (back in the 1960s) but have long suspected..

166

u/ZoeBlade Jan 30 '25

Here, try some of these tests as a rough guide. You can also browse autistic subreddits and see if they seem more like your kind of people -- there tends to be a bit of communication friction between many autistic and non-autistic people, so if you get along with us better, that itself can be a clue. Similarly, if you already have autistic friends, that's probably a sign.

13

u/AllanfromWales1 MA | Natural Sciences | Metallurgy & Materials Science Jan 30 '25

Took the AQ, scored 36/50 where the commentary says "79.3% of autistic people score 32 or higher (whereas only 2% of controls do), so scores of 32 and above are particularly significant."

Oh well.

10

u/ZoeBlade Jan 30 '25

It sounds like your suspicions were probably well founded. If you're ready to look into it, it can explain a lot of the things you struggle with (some of which you might have erroneously assumed everyone else does as well), and there are certain accommodations you can ideally implement for yourself to make things a little easier. My DMs are open if you'd like to talk about it at all, autism's something of a special interest of mine.

1

u/AllanfromWales1 MA | Natural Sciences | Metallurgy & Materials Science Jan 30 '25

To be honest I've made allowances for the possibility for some time, so it's hardly a shock to me. Given that I'll be retiring later this year, I'm not sure what benefits I could hope for.

3

u/ZoeBlade Jan 30 '25 edited Jan 30 '25

Well, for one thing, it's likely each of your senses might be too strong or too weak. My partner's found that installing blackout curtains at home has really helped her, while we've both found noise-cancelling headphones to be invaluable. (I'm literally wearing mine right now in order to be able to concentrate properly.)

If you struggle to make eye contact, or decipher people's subtle hints, or people accuse you of being too direct, even arrogant, or mistake your tone of voice for being depressed or upset at them... then it helps to really understand and internalise that you're not a bad person, you're literally just talking with everyone at crossed purposes through no fault of your own.

Just letting yourself fidget (stim) without feeling ashamed, because your nervous sytem / unconscious literally needs to do that to avoid getting overstimulated, can be important.

My mother realised she was autistic after retiring, and it still helped her to advocate for herself, knowing she wasn't imagining all the little ways she struggles when most people don't. Just knowing that it's OK to politely make your excuses and leave a social gathering when it's starting to overwhelm you. Things like that all add up to a much less stressful life, requiring less recovery days.

Mostly, it's a relief to just go easy on yourself, after a lifetime of being too hard on yourself, thinking "Other people can do this, why can't I?" It's not that they're better at overcoming the struggle, it's that they're not struggling in the first place.

1

u/AllanfromWales1 MA | Natural Sciences | Metallurgy & Materials Science Jan 30 '25

Ears: I just don't put in my hearing aids..

..then it helps to really understand and internalise that you're not a bad person..

You don't know me ;). Being serious, though, I gave up worrying about that a very long time ago. Without any diagnosis I just assumed I was different from them. My social circle is very small, and that's OK by me.

1

u/ZoeBlade Jan 30 '25

Fair enough.

On an interesting side note, this is very anecdotal, but my mother's family is also from Wales, as is my partner's, which makes me kinda idly wonder if there's a larger proportion of autistic people in Wales...

2

u/AllanfromWales1 MA | Natural Sciences | Metallurgy & Materials Science Jan 30 '25

..or other places with more sheep than humans.

1

u/ZoeBlade Jan 30 '25

They're certainly easier to talk to!

2

u/igloofu Jan 31 '25

On an interesting side note, this is very anecdotal, but my mother's family is also from Wales, as is my partner's, which makes me kinda idly wonder if there's a larger proportion of autistic people in Wales...

Um, interesting, that's all I'm gonna say about that.

And no, I'm gonna say more. My father, myself (mid '40s) and all 3 of my kids are ASD, all with different levels and symptoms. From everything I remember of my Grandfather, and from my dad has said, seems to be the case too. Both my Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather immigrated from Wales, and my Maternal grand mother did too. In fact, my surname is very very much Welsh, and based on a large and famous Welsh region.

1

u/frostatypical Feb 03 '25

So-called “autism” tests, like AQ and RAADS and others have high rates of false positives, labeling you as autistic VERY easily. If anyone with a mental health problem, like depression or anxiety, takes the tests they score high even if they DON’T have autism.

"our results suggest that the AQ differentiates poorly between true cases of ASD, and individuals from the same clinical population who do not have ASD "

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4988267/

"a greater level of public awareness of ASD over the last 5–10 years may have led to people being more vigilant in ‘noticing’ ASD related difficulties. This may lead to a ‘confirmation bias’ when completing the questionnaire measures, and potentially explain why both the ASD and the non-ASD group’s mean scores met the cut-off points, "

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-022-05544-9

Regarding AQ and RAADS, from one published study. “The two key findings of the review are that, overall, there is very limited evidence to support the use of structured questionnaires (SQs: self-report or informant completed brief measures developed to screen for ASD) in the assessment and diagnosis of ASD in adults.”

Psychometric properties of questionnaires and diagnostic measures for autism spectrum disorders in adults: A systematic review

 

Regarding RAADS, from one published study. “In conclusion, used as a self-report measure pre-full diagnostic assessment, the RAADS-R lacks predictive validity and is not a suitable screening tool for adults awaiting autism assessments”

The Effectiveness of RAADS-R as a Screening Tool for Adult ASD Populations (hindawi.com)

RAADS scores equivalent between those with and without ASD diagnosis at an autism evaluation center:

Examining the Diagnostic Validity of Autism Measures Among Adults in an Outpatient Clinic Sample - PMC (nih.gov)

 

 

1

u/AllanfromWales1 MA | Natural Sciences | Metallurgy & Materials Science Feb 03 '25

That sounds about right to me based on my experience and the nature of the tests, but I note that AQ specifically states that a score above 32 is only achieved by 2% of neurotypicals. Is that just advertising or out-of-date information?

1

u/frostatypical Feb 03 '25 edited Feb 03 '25

Yes thats BS. The site linked above goes right back to the source 'embrace autism". Which is a diagnosis mill website run by a ‘naturopathic doctor’ with an online autism certificate who is repeatedly under ethical investigation and now being disciplined and monitored by two governing organizations (College of Naturopaths and College of Registered Psychotherapists). 

https://cono.alinityapp.com/Client/PublicDirectory/Registrant/03d44ec3-ed3b-eb11-82b6-000c292a94a8

The research Ive already linked had plenty of examples of people scoring high when they are not autistic. Its a pretty well known problem in professional circles. These tests shouldnt be labeled 'autism' at all because other things produce high scores.

Let's Be Clear That "Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms" Are Not Always Related to Autism Spectrum Disorder - PubMed (nih.gov)

Autism questionnaire scores do not only rise because of autism - PubMed (nih.gov)

Autism-spectrum quotient Japanese version measures mental health problems other than autistic traits - PubMed (nih.gov)

Have a look around at that linked site above. Says things like " if you think you're very likely to be autistic, then you're probably right." and "And if you think the questions on these tests are too ambiguous to answer... that's probably a sign."