RAADS-14

RAADS-14 Screen

A 14-item brief screener for autism in adults, derived from the full RAADS-R.

For each statement, select the response that best matches your experience. Answer based on what is generally true for you — not just right now.

About the RAADS-14 Screen

The RAADS-14 Screen was developed by Jonna Eriksson, Lina Andersen, and Susanne Bejerot (2013) as a brief version of the 80-item Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale – Revised (RAADS-R). It was designed specifically for adult psychiatric settings, where autism is frequently missed or masked by co-occurring mental health presentations.

14 items on the same 4-point scale as the full RAADS-R. Takes roughly 3 minutes. Designed for adults (18+).

Scoring

Each item scores 0–3. For most items, “True now and when I was young” scores 3 and “Never true” scores 0. One item (the normative item about chatting and making small talk) is reverse-scored. The total ranges 0–42. A cutoff of 14 or higher is the suggested threshold for further evaluation.

Validity

In the original Swedish validation, sensitivity was approximately 97% and specificity approximately 46% among adult psychiatric patients. In practice this means the screen catches most autistic adults but also flags many non-autistic people with overlapping presentations such as anxiety or trauma. It is designed to be over-inclusive on purpose.

Important: The RAADS-14 is a brief screen, not a diagnosis. A high score means further assessment is worth considering. The full RAADS-R gives more detail across the four classical domains (social, language, sensory-motor, and restricted interests).

Eriksson, J. M., Andersen, L. M. J., & Bejerot, S. (2013). RAADS-14 Screen: Validity of a screening tool for autism spectrum disorder in an adult psychiatric population. Molecular Autism, 4, 49.