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Autism Test for Kids: the AQ-10 Child Explained
Ten short statements about how your child communicates, plays, and focuses. The Autism Research Centre at Cambridge published it, along with the threshold for referring a child on. It was built to decide who gets assessed, not to give you an answer.
- 10 items
- Ages 4-11
- Parent report
Available through care
This questionnaire is published by the Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, and we don't publish it here. If it is relevant to your child's care, your Emora clinician may use it as part of their assessment.
Get a comprehensive evaluationPublic version of the questionnaire is available from the publisher.
What a AQ-10 score can and cannot tell you
The AQ-10 is a ten-item screening questionnaire for autistic traits. It was built to decide who should be referred for an assessment.
An autism assessment uses structured observation, a developmental history, and standardized instruments; the AQ-10 is none of those.
Wherever it is used, a rating scale is a screen, not an assessment. A clinician reads it alongside a history, an interview, and often a second rater such as a teacher or the other parent before drawing any conclusion.
About the AQ-10 Child
The AQ-10 (Child) is the 10-item short form of the Autism Spectrum Quotient. Allison, Auyeung, and Baron-Cohen published it at the University of Cambridge Autism Research Centre as a set of quick “red flags” for autism screening. You rate statements about social communication, attention to detail, and imagination for a child ages 4 to 11. Each answer that points toward autism scores a point.
A score above the threshold does not mean your child is on the autism spectrum. It means a full assessment makes sense. That assessment usually happens with a developmental pediatrician or a child psychologist, who looks at your child’s history and at how they communicate and play. It is the only way to reach or rule out a diagnosis. A low score does not rule autism out either. What you notice at home counts for more than ten questions do.
We do not publish the AQ-10 for you to fill in here. The Autism Research Centre publishes its own copy. When it is useful for your child, one of our clinicians gives it as part of an autism evaluation. Those evaluations run online with licensed child psychologists, usually within days of sign-up, and therapy support is available afterward.
How the AQ-10 Child is scored
Each answer scores against a published key. Some questions score a point for agreeing, others for disagreeing. The points add up to a short total, and at or above the published threshold the authors suggest a referral for a specialist assessment.
The AQ-10 was built to decide who gets assessed. It was never built to describe your child. A score below the threshold does not rule autism out, and what you notice at home carries more weight than ten questions do.
A screener is not a diagnosis. Cutoffs are set to catch more than they miss, so a high score is a reason to talk to a clinician, not an answer.
Common questions
No. We do not publish the AQ-10 on this page. The Autism Research Centre publishes its own copy, and an Emora clinician can administer it as part of an evaluation.
Autistic traits, not autism. Ten statements cover social communication, attention to detail, and imagination. It was designed to be brief enough for a first conversation and to decide who should be referred for a full assessment.
It is validated for ages 4 to 11. For toddlers under 4, pediatricians typically use the M-CHAT-R at well visits; for ages 12 and up there are adolescent and adult versions a clinician can administer.
Talk with your pediatrician or book a diagnostic evaluation directly. Bring examples of what you see at home and school; specific moments help more than summaries. Whatever the outcome, an evaluation gets you clearer answers and better support.
Yes. Licensed child psychologists at Emora conduct autism evaluations for children online, usually within days of sign-up, covered by most major insurance plans.
References
- Allison, C., Auyeung, B., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2012). Toward brief "red flags" for autism screening: The Short Autism Spectrum Quotient and the Short Quantitative Checklist in 1,000 cases and 3,000 controls. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 51(2), 202-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2011.11.003 Official source
AQ-10 Child, Autism Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge.
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