How the screening works
A transparent look at the science, scoring, and design decisions behind iamaudhd.
Three axes, not one score
Most screening tools produce a single number. That number hides the most important signal: how ADHD and autism traits interact when they co-occur.
iamaudhd scores three axes independently — ADHD, Autism (ASD), and AuDHD — so you can see not just whether traits are present, but how they relate to each other. A high AuDHD score with moderate individual scores isn't a contradiction — it's the whole point.
What we measure
14 subscales across 3 axes, informed by validated instruments and AuDHD-specific domain design.
ADHD — 4 subscales
Inattention
Focus, distractibility, forgetfulness, and losing track of things.
Source: DSM-5, ASRS
Hyperactivity-Impulsivity
Restlessness, fidgeting, interrupting, and impulsive decision-making.
Source: DSM-5, ASRS
Emotional Dysregulation
Mood swings, frustration tolerance, and rejection sensitivity.
Source: Research-supported
Executive Function
Planning, time management, task initiation, and organization.
Source: ASRS + supplementary
Autism (ASD) — 4 subscales
Social Communication
Reading social cues, reciprocal conversation, and nonverbal communication.
Source: DSM-5, AQ-50, RAADS-R
Restricted/Repetitive Patterns
Routines, rituals, resistance to change, and repetitive behaviors.
Source: DSM-5, RAADS-R
Sensory Processing
Hyper- and hypo-sensitivity, sensory overwhelm, and avoidance behaviors.
Source: RAADS-R
Camouflaging
Masking autistic traits, scripting social responses, and performing neurotypicality.
Source: CAT-Q
AuDHD — 6 subscales
These six domains are original to iamaudhd — designed to explore AuDHD co-occurrence patterns. They focus on interaction effects that single-axis tools may not surface.
Internal Contradiction
Competing needs — craving routine and novelty, connection and solitude, simultaneously.
Dual-Layer Masking
Suppressing both ADHD and autistic traits at once, compounding the exhaustion of masking.
Interest Architecture
Both stable special interests and cycling hyperfixations coexisting — monotropism meets novelty-seeking.
Task Inertia-Paralysis
Can't start and can't stop — the compound stuck state where ADHD initiation failure meets autistic task inertia.
Sensory Seeker-Avoider
Seeking and avoiding stimulation, sometimes in the same modality, sometimes at the same time.
Burnout & Recovery
AuDHD-specific burnout that standard rest cannot fix, because the recovery needs of each condition conflict.
Informed by validated instruments
Our questions draw from five instruments used in clinical practice and research, extended with AuDHD-specific domains for overlap and masking patterns.
Standardized screening for adult ADHD with separate inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity item sets.
How we use it: Informs our Inattention, Hyperactivity-Impulsivity, and Executive Function subscales.
50-item self-report covering social skills, communication, imagination, attention to detail, and attention switching.
How we use it: Informs our Social Communication and Restricted/Repetitive Patterns subscales.
80-item scale with 4 subscales: sensory-motor, social relatedness, language, and circumscribed interests.
How we use it: Informs our Sensory Processing, Social Communication, and Restricted/Repetitive Patterns subscales.
25-item measure of social camouflaging across compensation, masking, and assimilation dimensions.
How we use it: Informs our Camouflaging and Dual-Layer Masking subscales. Research shows ADHD adults also score elevated (Putten et al., 2024).
DSM-5
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th EditionAmerican Psychiatric Association, 2013 →Diagnostic criteria framework for both ADHD and ASD. Since 2013, permits dual diagnosis of ADHD and Autism.
How we use it: Provides the criterion mapping framework for ADHD and ASD subscales.
How scores are calculated
Every answer is normalized to a 0–1 scale, then multiplied by the question's weight for each relevant domain. Weights determine how strongly a question contributes to a given subscale. The weighted scores are summed per axis and divided by the total weight of answered questions.
The key design decision: proportional exclusion. If you skip a question, it's removed from both the numerator (your score) and the denominator (the maximum possible). Your results reflect what you actually answered — no penalties for skipping.
Technical Detail
60% minimum threshold: If fewer than 60% of questions in an axis are answered, we report “insufficient data” instead of a score. This prevents misleading results from sparse data.
Confidence tiers: Based on the percentage of questions answered per axis.
| Answered | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100% | High | Strong confidence in results |
| 75–89% | Moderate | Results are reliable |
| 60–74% | Low | Interpret with caution |
| Below 60% | Insufficient | No score reported |
Two-phase scoring: The free 20-question screener produces 3-axis results (ADHD, Autism, AuDHD) using the same scoring engine as the full assessment. The full 170-question assessment produces 14 subscale scores, trait interactions, and pattern analysis.
Answer types: Questions use one of seven formats — two-part (yes/no gate + frequency), dimensional decomposition (multi-dimension), frequency, relatability, yes/no, pick-one, and pick-any — each normalized appropriately before weight application. See the Answer Formats section below for details.
Answer Formats
Different experiences require different ways of answering. We use multiple answer formats, each designed to capture the nuance of how traits actually show up in your life.
Two-Part (Yes/No + Frequency)
First, do you experience this? If yes, how often? This graded approach captures the difference between “rarely” and “always” instead of forcing a binary yes or no. Used for all 20 screener questions and select full assessment questions.
Dimensional Decomposition
Complex experiences broken into 2–5 focused dimensions on a single screen. For example, a question about emotional intensity separately captures how intense, how it was expressed, and whether you or others noticed it first. Used for 17 questions in the full assessment.
Multi-Select
When multiple options can genuinely coexist. Select all that apply, and each selection contributes proportionally to your score.
Self-Awareness Indicator
For traits that are often recognized by others before the person themselves, we ask: “Do you know this about yourself, do others tell you, or both?” This does not affect your score but enriches your report and personalizes the AI analysis. Attached to 59 questions across all three life stages.
Why single-axis tools miss the overlap
When ADHD and autism co-occur, each set of traits can suppress the other's presentation. This is called mutual masking, and it's one of the primary reasons people with AuDHD are missed by standard screening tools.
For example: autistic focus and routine-building can compensate for ADHD inattention, making someone appear “not that ADHD.” ADHD-driven sociability and spontaneity can mask autistic social differences, making someone appear “not that autistic.” Each condition hides the other.
iamaudhd detects this by comparing individual axis scores against the AuDHD axis. If your AuDHD axis is elevated but an individual axis scores low, our pattern analysis flags it as a potential masking effect — not as evidence against co-occurrence, but as evidence for it.
The key insight:
A high AuDHD score with low ADHD or ASD is a meaningful signal, not a contradiction. It suggests trait interaction patterns that single-axis tools are structurally incapable of detecting.
What this tool is — and isn't
iamaudhd is a screening tool, not a diagnostic instrument. It identifies patterns of traits consistent with ADHD, Autism, and AuDHD — but a clinical diagnosis requires professional evaluation.
Self-report screening has inherent limitations. Recall accuracy varies, especially for childhood questions. Self-awareness affects how traits are reported. Cultural background shapes how traits are expressed and recognized. People who mask effectively may underreport traits even on a tool designed to detect masking.
We encourage using your results as a conversation starter with a clinician, not as a definitive answer. Scores indicate trait patterns and their relative strength — not clinical certainty.
We built this tool to be transparent about what it does and how. That transparency extends to its limits.