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Development and Validation of a New Autism Questionnaire: AUT-EZ-ME

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Abstract

Objectives

This study reports the development of the AUT-EZ-ME, a new diagnostic instrument in order to quickly, reliable, and valid identify and differentiate children with autism aged 4–18 years.

Methods

A total of 216 parents of children age 4 to 18 years participated in this study and were divided into three groups: children with autism, children without any diagnosis, and children with other diagnosis. The participants were asked to complete the AUT-EZ-ME which could be administered online. The AUT-EZ-ME is a 36-item parent report questionnaire based on the empathizing-systemizing theory. The questionnaire consists of a series of descriptive statements designed to assess three main features of autism and the eleven associated areas as shown in previous research: social skills, attention switching, attention to detail, communication, imagination, recognition of emotions, sharing of emotional states, perspective taking, narrow interests, repetitive behavior, and resistance to change or need for sameness.

Results

A very clear differentiation was found between children with autism and the typical group and the other diagnosis groups using the AUT-EZ-ME. Furthermore, we found a good internal consistency of the AUT-EZ-ME and its belonging subscales.

Conclusions

The AUT-EZ-ME is found to be a reliable and valid diagnostic tool for the identification of children with autism. The AUT-EZ-ME showed satisfactory internal consistency and high sensitivity together with low specificity when a cut-off score is set at 26.

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Data Availability

The datasets/literature during and analyzed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. EZ Praktijk Voor Psychodiagnostiek, Oostplaat 19, Bergen op Zoom, 4617 LN, the Netherlands

    Evi van der Zee

  2. Department of Clinical Psychology, Radboud University, Montessorilaan 3 A7, Nijmegen, 6525 HR, the Netherlands

    Jan J. L. Derksen

Authors
  1. Evi van der Zee
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  2. Jan J. L. Derksen
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Contributions

JD collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript. EZ designed and executed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Evi van der Zee.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study.

Consent for Publication

Not applicable.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

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Supplementary file1 (DOCX 31.5 KB)

Appendix

Appendix

AUT-EZ-ME

  1. 1.

    S/he often notices small sounds when others do not.

  2. 2.

    In a social group, s/he can easily keep track of several different people’s conversations.

  3. 3.

    When s/he is reading a story, s/he finds it difficult to work out the characters’ intentions or feelings.

  4. 4.

    S/he finds it hard to make new friends.

  5. 5.

    S/he does not know how to keep a conversation going with his/her peers.

  6. 6.

    S/he usually concentrates more on the whole picture, rather than the small details.

  7. 7.

    S/he finds it easy to go back and forth between different activities.

  8. 8.

    S/he finds it easy to work out what someone is thinking or feeling just by looking at their face.

  9. 9.

    S/he is good at social chit-chat.

  10. 10.

    When s/he was in preschool, she used to enjoy playing games involving pretending.

  11. 11.

    My child likes to take care of others.

  12. 12.

    My child often doesn’t understand why some things upset other people so much.

  13. 13.

    My child has trouble forming friendships.

  14. 14.

    My child has one or two close friends, as well as several other friends.

  15. 15.

    My child shows concern when others are upset.

  16. 16.

    My child can easily tell when another person wants to enter into conversation with them.

  17. 17.

    My child would worry about how another child would feel if they weren’t invited to a party.

  18. 18.

    My child likes to help new children integrate in class.

  19. 19.

    My child gets upset at seeing others crying or in pain.

  20. 20.

    My child listens to others’ opinions, even when different from their own.

  21. 21.

    My child is often rude or impolite without realizing it.

  22. 22.

    My child can adequately react to another child that’s crying.

  23. 23.

    My child makes eye contact in a conversation.

  24. 24.

    My child uses a dressing-up box when playing.

  25. 25.

    My child understands what other individuals mean when they are not using words.

  26. 26.

    My child does not mind if things in the house are not in their proper place.

  27. 27.

    My child is interested in the different members of a specific animal category.

  28. 28.

    My child would not notice if something in the house had been moved or changed.

  29. 29.

    My child is interested in different types of vehicles.

  30. 30.

    My child likes to collect things.

  31. 31.

    My child gets annoyed when things aren’t done on time.

  32. 32.

    My child remembers large amounts of information about a topic that interests them.

  33. 33.

    My child is not bothered about knowing the exact timings of the day’s plans.

  34. 34.

    My child tends to repeat certain remarkable behavior every day.

  35. 35.

    My child does not spend large amounts of time lining things up in a particular order.

  36. 36.

    My child likes to spend time mastering particular aspects of their favorite activities.

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van der Zee, E., Derksen, J.J.L. Development and Validation of a New Autism Questionnaire: AUT-EZ-ME. Adv Neurodev Disord 6, 29–35 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-021-00228-4

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