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Welcome!

This is Pete's bare-bones Asperger's page, created just to present this little informal test.

Roger Meyer created a list of Asperger's Syndrome characteristics. To quote him: "Most have been extracted from medical diagnostic criteria, descriptions offered by medical and counseling professionals, articles by educators and from employment biographies of approximately a dozen independent-living, medically or self-diagnosed AS adults over the age of 25. While every adult occasionally manifests these characteristics, what distinguishes adults with AS is their consistency of appearance, their intensity, and the sheer number of them appearing simultaneously. Some characteristics do not apply to everyone, so persons consulting this list should not feel compelled to find them all. Adults with AS who wish to compose employment biographies for their own enlightenment and/or as contributions to research should weigh the significance of the ones they share, and have their compositions accurately reflect that impact."

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Check each item you feel applies to you and click the button at the end to see how many you checked.

Social Characteristics

1. Difficulty in accepting criticism or correction
2. Difficulty in offering correction or criticism without appearing harsh, pedantic or insensitive
3. Difficulty in perceiving and applying unwritten social rules or protocols
4. "Immature" manners
5. Failure to distinguish between private and public personal care habits: i.e., brushing, public attention to skin problems, nose picking, teeth picking, ear canal cleaning, clothing arrangement
6. Naïve trust in others
7. Shyness
8. Low or no conversational participation in group meetings or conferences
9. Constant anxiety about performance and acceptance, despite recognition and commendation
10. Scrupulous honesty, often expressed in an apparently disarming or inappropriate manner or setting
11. Bluntness in emotional expression
12. "Flat affect" (an appearance or mood that shows no emotion)
13. Discomfort manipulating or "playing games" with others
14. Unmodulated reaction in being manipulated, patronized, or "handled" by others
15. Low to medium level of paranoia
16. Low to no apparent sense of humor; bizarre sense of humor (often stemming from a "private" internal thread of humor being inserted in public conversation without preparation or warming others up to the reason for the "punchline")
17. Difficulty with reciprocal displays of pleasantries and greetings
18. Problems expressing empathy or comfort to/with others: sadness, condolence, congratulations, etc.
19. Pouting,, ruminating, fixating on bad experiences with people or events for an inordinate length of time
20. Difficulty with adopting a social mask to obscure real feelings, moods, reactions
21. Using social masks inappropriately (you are "xv" while everyone else is ????)
22. Abrupt and strong expression of likes and dislikes
23. Rigid adherence to rules and social conventions where flexibility is desirable
24. Apparent absence of relaxation, recreational, or "time out" activities
25. "Serious" all the time
26. Known for single-mindedness
27. Flash temper
28. Tantrums
29. Excessive talk
30. Difficulty in forming friendships and intimate relationships; difficulty in distinguishing between acquaintance and friendship
31. Social isolation and intense concern for privacy
32. Limited clothing preference; discomfort with formal attire or uniforms
33. Preference for bland or bare environments in living arrangements
34. Difficulty judging others’ personal space
35. Limited by intensely pursued interests
36. Often perceived as "being in their own world"

Physical Manifestations

37. Strong sensory sensitivities: touch and tactile sensations, sounds, lighting and colors, odors, taste
38. Clumsiness
39. Balance difficulties
40. Difficulty in judging distances, height, depth
41. Difficulty in recognizing others’ faces (prosopagnosia)
42. Stims (self-stimulatory behavior serving to reduce anxiety, stress, or to express pleasure)
43. Self-injurious or disfiguring behaviors
44. Nail-biting
45. Unusual gait, stance, posture
46. Gross or fine motor coordination problems
47. Low apparent sexual interest
48. Depression
49. Anxiety
50. Sleep difficulties
51. Verbosity
52. Difficulty expressing anger (excessive or "bottled up")
53. Flat or monotone vocal expression; limited range of inflection
54. Difficulty with initiating or maintaining eye contact
55. Elevated voice volume during periods of stress and frustration
56. Strong food preferences and aversions
57. Unusual and rigidly adhered to eating behaviors
58. Bad or unusual personal hygiene

Morbid (shared, dual, multiple) Diagnostic Conditions

59. Learning Disability
60. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
61. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
62. Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)
63. Hyperlexia (An early ability to read, far above your age level)
64. Anxiety
65. Non-verbal Learning Disorder (NVLD)
66. Hypertension
67. Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder
68. Tourette’s Syndrome
69. Dysthymia

Cognitive Characteristics

70. Susceptibility to distraction
71. Difficulty in expressing emotions
72. Resistance to or failure to respond to talk therapy
73. Mental shutdown response to conflicting demands and multi-tasking
74. Generalized confusion during periods of stress
75. Low understanding of the reciprocal rules of conversation: interrupting, dominating, minimum participation, difficult in shifting topics, problem with initiating or terminating conversation, subject perseveration
76. Insensitivity to the non-verbal cues of others (stance, posture, facial expressions)
77. Perseveration best characterized by the term "bulldog tenacity"
78. Literal interpretation of instructions (failure to read between the lines)
79. Interpreting words and phrases literally (problem with colloquialisms, cliches, neologism, turns of phrase, common humorous expressions)
80. Preference for visually oriented instruction and training
81. Dependence on step-by-step learning procedures (disorientation occurs when a step is assumed, deleted, or otherwise overlooked in instruction)
82. Difficulty in generalizing
83. Preference for repetitive, often simple routines
84. Difficulty in understanding rules for games of social entertainment
85. Missing or misconstruing others’ agendas, priorities, preferences
86. Impulsiveness
87. Compelling need to finish one task completely before starting another
88. Rigid adherence to rules and routines
89. Difficulty in interpreting meaning to others’ activities; difficulty in drawing relationships between an activity or event and ideas
90. Exquisite attention to detail, principally visual, or details which can be visualized ("Thinking in Pictures") or cognitive details (often those learned by rote)
91. Concrete thinking
92. Distractibility due to focus on external or internal sensations, thoughts, and/or sensory input (appearing to be in a world of one’s own or day-dreaming)
93. Difficulty in assessing relative importance of details (an aspect o the trees/forest problem)
94. Poor judgment of when a task is finished (often attributable to perfectionism or an apparent unwillingness to follow differential standards for quality)
95. Difficulty in imagining others’ thoughts in a similar or identical event or circumstance that are different from one’s own ("Theory of Mind" issues)
96. Difficulty with organizing and sequencing (planning and execution; successful performance of tasks in a logical, functional order)
97. Difficulty in assessing cause and effect relationships (behaviors and consequences)
98. An apparent lack of "common sense"
99. Relaxation techniques and developing recreational "release" interest may require formal instruction
100. Rage, tantrum, shutdown, self-isolating reactions appearing "out of nowhere"
101. Substantial hidden self-anger, anger towards others, and resentment
102. Difficulty in estimating time to complete tasks
103. Difficulty in learning self-monitoring techniques
104. Disinclination to produce expected results in an orthodox manner
105. Psychometric testing shows great deviance between verbal and performance results
106. Extreme reaction to changes in routine, surroundings, people
107. Stilted, pedantic conversational style ("The Professor")

Work Characteristics
Many of the manifestations found in the categories above can immediately translate into work behaviors or preferences. Here are some additional ones:

108. Difficulty with "teamwork"
109. Deliberate withholding of peak performance due to belief that one’s best efforts may remain unrecognized, unrewarded, or appropriated by others
110. Intense pride in expertise or performance, often perceived by others as "flouting behavior"
111. Sarcasm, negativism, criticism
112. Difficulty in accepting compliments, often responding with quizzical or self-deprecatory language
113. Tendency to "lose it" during sensory overload, multitask demands, or when contradictory and confusing priorities have been set
114. Difficult in starting project
115. Discomfort with competition, out of scale reactions to losing
116. Low motivation to perform tasks of no immediate personal interest
117. Oversight or forgetting of tasks without formal reminders such as lists or schedules
118. Great concern about order and appearance of personal work area
119. Slow performance
120. Perfectionism
121. Difficult with unstructured time
122. Reluctance to ask for help or seek comfort
123. Excessive questions
124. Low sensitivity to risks in the environment to self and/or others
125. Difficulty with writing and reports
126. Reliance on internal speech process to "talk" oneself through a task or procedure
127. Stress, frustration and anger reaction to interruptions
128. Difficulty in negotiating either in conflict situations or as a self-advocate
129. Very low level of assertiveness
130. Reluctance to accept positions of authority or supervision
131. Strong desire to coach or mentor newcomers
132. Difficulty in handling relationships with authority figures
133. Often viewed as vulnerable or less able to resist harassment and badgering by others
134. Punctual and conscientious
135. Avoids socializing, "hanging out," or small talk on and off the job



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