Do you try to look less autistic?
In my last post, I said that a questionnaire was recently created to identify autistic “camouflaging.”
Here are the questions it includes, if you’d like to try answering them! They were originally statements, but I’ve reworded them as questions.
If your answer is “sometimes,” then give yourself half a point. If you already answered a similar question, just answer it again for more points.
(Note that this was designed for both autistics and non-autistics. You could be covering up some common “autistic” traits without even being autistic!)
- When you’re interacting with someone, do you deliberately copy their body language or facial expressions?
- Do you monitor your body language or facial expressions so that you appear more relaxed?
- Do you often feel the need to put on an act in order to get through a social situation?
- Have you developed a script to follow in social situations (for example, a list of questions or topics of conversation)?
- Do you repeat phrases that you’ve heard others say in the exact same way that you first heard them?
- Do you adjust your body language or facial expressions to appear more interested in the person you’re interacting with?
- In social situations, do you feel like you’re “performing” rather than being yourself?
- In your own social interactions, do you use behaviours that you’ve learned from watching other people interacting?
- Do you always think about the impression you make on other people?
- Do you need the support of other people in order to socialize?
- Do you practice facial expressions and body language to make sure they look natural?
- Do you feel the need to make eye contact with other people, even if you don’t want to?
- Do you have to force yourself to interact with people when you’re in social situations?
- Have you tried to improve your understanding of social skills by watching other people?
- Do you monitor your body language or facial expressions to appear more interested in the person you’re interacting with?
- When in social situations, do you try to find ways to avoid interacting with others?
- Have you researched the rules of social interactions (for example, by studying psychology or reading books on human behaviour) to improve your own social skills?
- Are you always aware of the impression you make on other people?
- Do you sometimes not feel free to be yourself when you’re with other people?
- Do you learn how people use their bodies and faces to interact by watching television or films, or by reading fiction?
- Do you adjust your body language or facial expressions so that you appear more relaxed?
- When talking to other people, do you feel like the conversation doesn’t flow naturally?
- Have you spent time learning social skills from television shows and films, and tried to use these in your interactions?
- In social interactions, do you pay attention to what your face or body are doing?
- In social situations, do you feel like you’re pretending to be “normal”?
I downloaded this questionnaire from the “Supplementary Material” section of the study it was created for:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3792-6
My last post, which summarizes the study, is here:
https://facebook.com/526913764467482