A screening questionnaire, not a diagnosis.
The AQ-Child is the children’s version of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). It was developed by Bonnie Auyeung, Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues at the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge and published in 2008. It is meant for children aged 4 to 11. Young children can’t reliably describe their own traits, so a parent or someone who knows the child well answers the questions.
The statements are the same as in the adult AQ-50, adapted to children’s everyday life, for example school, birthday parties and being read a story. On this site, each statement starts with “My child”, where the original uses “S/he”.
The 50 statements cover the same five areas as the adult version, with ten statements in each:
You answer each statement on a four-point scale from “definitely agree” to “definitely disagree”. Unlike the adult AQ-50, every answer counts: an answer in the autistic direction gives 3 points if you agree or disagree definitely, and 2 points if only slightly. An answer in the other direction gives 1 or 0 points. About half of the statements are worded the other way round. The total is between 0 and 150.
In the original study of 1,225 children without autism and 540 autistic children, the children without a diagnosis scored about 42 on average, and the autistic children about 104. A score of 76 or more picked out 95% of the autistic children, while only about 5% of the other children scored that high. On this site, the result is described like this:
You also get a score for each of the five areas, so you can see which kinds of traits make up the total. Boys without autism scored a little higher than girls on average.
The AQ-Child is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. A high score means you recognise many traits in your child that are common in autistic children, but anxiety, ADHD, language difficulties and other conditions can also raise the score. A low score doesn’t rule out autism, especially in children who mask their difficulties, which is more common in girls. If the score is high, or you recognise your child in many of the statements, talk to your child’s doctor. Bring the result with you; it can be a useful starting point for the conversation.
For teenagers aged 12 to 15, use the AQ-Adolescent instead. From age 16, people can take the AQ-50 themselves.
Auyeung B, Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Allison C. The Autism Spectrum Quotient: Children’s Version (AQ-Child). Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2008; 38(7): 1230–1240.