Centering the Inner Experience of Autism: Development of the Self-Assessment of Autistic Traits
Ratto et al. (2023)
The current Autism identification tools has issues around lack of specificity and sensitivity. This is especially for older Autistic people, or those who have higher verbal ability, and are not cisgender boys. The authors suggest this may be due to the historical focus on white cisgender, male, upper and middle class children, lack of interest in the lived experience of Autism and the widespread use of the deficit-based model. This article reports on the work to develop a clinical self-report measure of Autistic traits as outlined by Autistic people. The measure was developed with two Autistic researchers and a range of Autistic people to develop items that encompass the Autistic experience. Using iterative feedback from a panel of Autistic experts the team refined the measure, called the Self Assessment of Autistic Traits (SAAT). It is applicable to anyone over 16 years old and is designed to increase accessibility and acceptability for Autistic respondents. The long-term goal of the measure is to advance the understanding of inner Autistic life and experiences and enhancing the clinical ways of assessing Autism.
