The Asperger Syndrome (and high-functioning autism) Diagnostic Interview (ASDI): a preliminary study of a new structured clinical interview.

The team built a new interview called the ASDI. It asks about Asperger traits and high-functioning autism.

They tried it on a small group of people. Two raters gave the interview twice to check if answers stayed the same.

The interview scored better than 0.90 on kappa for both raters and time points. That means almost perfect agreement.

It also matched other trusted tools, so it looks like a valid way to spot Asperger Syndrome and high-functioning autism.

Lord et al. (1997) did the same kind of work on the ADI-R. The ASDI follows their recipe but zooms in on the high-functioning slice.

Cederlund et al. (2010) later gave the ASDI to older males. They found teens and parents often answered differently, while the ASDI still worked. This extends the 2001 data to a new age band.

Ferreri et al. (2011) showed two short parent checklists matched the long ADI-R over 90% of the time. Their result seems to clash with the ASDI idea that you need a long interview, but the two studies tested different ages and tools. Both agree that parent input is key.

If you assess bright clients who talk well, the ASDI gives you a structured script and shows top-notch reliability. Pair it with parent forms for a fuller picture, and always ask yourself whose report you trust most when answers differ.