ASD Assessment Interview

General
 Has anyone said you might have ASD?

 What did teachers/parents/coaches say about your behavior while growing up?

 Are you rigid or “strict” about certain things, such as your schedule?

Social
 Have you ever struggled with social skills? Things like small talk, starting, maintaining, and
ending conversations, making friends?

 Do you want more friendships? Do you wish you had better social skills?

 Do you ever accidently hurt others’ feelings?

 Do others’ reactions to what you do or say ever surprise you, or are very different from
what you expected?

 Does it ever feel like others have a hard time understanding you?
 Do you have friends? How did you meet them? How many? How much time do you spend
with them? How often do you talk to them?

 Were you a “loner” growing up? Are you now?

 What has your history with friendships been like? Did you have friends in elementary, junior
high, high school? What did you do with them? How often did you spend time with them?
Talk to them?

 Do you have difficulty understanding or predicting what others are thinking? Do you have
problems “reading” people?

 Have you ever had a romantic relationship?

Restricted Interests
 Growing up, were you ever intensely interested in something, where you spent much of
your time on it? (i.e. trains, elevators, specific animals/insects, history, Egyptians, dance,
etc.)

 Are you very interested or even obsessive about something currently? How much time do
you spend on it?

Family History
 Any family history of ASD? Do you suspect that anyone in your family has ASD?

Sensory
 Have you ever been sensitive to touch, sounds, lights, temperature, noise, textures (of
clothing, food, etc.) or other stimuli? Are you currently sensitive to touch, sounds, lights,
temperature, noise, textures, or other stimuli?

 Is there anything in the office that’s bothering you right now?

Language
 Did you have a delay in language as a child?

Behavioral Observations
 Clumsy, awkward gait, speaking style, social skills, eye contact, facial expressions, tone and
loudness of speech, rigidity, tangential and overly detailed speech, monologue-ing, flat or
constricted affect, strange dress

Common Rule Outs

ADHD
OCD
Schizoid
 Does not desire or enjoy relationships, including being part of a family
 Indifferent to praise or criticism of others
 Takes pleasure in few, if any, activities
Schizotypal
 Ideas of reference
 Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with
subcultural norms
 Unusual perceptual experiences
 Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation