Investigators have developed a freely available measure of autism symptoms that can help to screen for autism and monitor changes over time in symptoms. Research on the development and validation of the Autism Symptom Dimension Questionnaire (ASDQ) is published in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology.

After development of an initial 33-item version, a revised 39-item version of the ASDQ (available at https://prolific.co/) was applied to 1,467 children and adolescents, including 104 with autism spectrum disorder. The questionnaire was found to be reliable and valid for evaluating autism symptoms across age, sex, race, and ethnicity.

“Having a freely available and modern measure of autism symptoms can greatly improve clinical practice and advance research into autism spectrum disorder,” said corresponding author Thomas W. Frazier, PhD, of John Carroll University.