The motivation for special interests in individuals with autism and controls: Development and validation of the special interest motivation scale.
Adults with autism feel stronger inner drive and “flow” around their special interests—capture it in five minutes with the SIMS.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a short scale called the SIMS. It asks adults how they feel about their special interests.
They gave the scale to adults with autism and adults without autism. They compared the two groups.
The study checked if the scale really measures motivation and if it works the same way for both groups.
What they found
Adults with autism scored higher on two parts of the scale. These parts are called “intrinsic interest & knowledge” and “engagement & flow.”
In plain words, they said they love learning about their topic and lose track of time while doing it.
How this fits with other research
Jordan et al. (2012) looked at online posts and also found that autistic adults talk about more detailed and system-focused interests. The new scale backs up those old forum results with a quick pencil-and-paper tool.
Anthony et al. (2020) seems to disagree. They showed that autistic teens do not gain interest in social rewards the way typical teens do. The key difference is age and topic. Teens may lack social drive, yet adults can still feel strong inner drive around their own interests.
Rivard et al. (2018) went further by measuring brain waves. They found no extra “brain spike” when autistic teens saw pictures of their interests. The SIMS now shows that, inside, adults do report richer feelings about those same topics. The two studies together tell us the inner joy is real even if the brain wave size looks the same.
Why it matters
You now have a 20-item tool that takes five minutes. Use it during intake to learn what truly excites your adult client. When you know their high-motivation topics, you can weave them into goals, reinforcers, and conversation practice. The scale is free and autism-friendly, so you get data without a long interview.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Clinical observations and first person accounts of living with autism suggest that individuals with autism are highly motivated to engage in special interests, and that these interests remain important throughout life. Previous research assessing special interests has mainly focused on parental reports of children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). To better understand the significance of and motivations for engaging in special interests it is essential to use self-report ratings. This paper aims to systematically explore the motivations for engagement in special interests, and whether these differ in adults with ASC, first-degree relatives and general population controls. The Special Interest Motivation Scale (SIMS) was developed to assess motivation to engage in special interests. The internal structure of this scale was evaluated using factor analysis, and mean scores on the SIMS factors were subsequently compared across individuals with autism, parents and general population controls. Factor analysis indicated a 20-item SIMS containing five factors assessing Personal life values and goals; Intrinsic interest and knowledge; Prestige; Engagement and "flow" and Achievement. Individuals with autism were more motivated by Intrinsic interest and knowledge and by Engagement and flow than controls. The 20-item SIMS is a quick to administer measure that provides a reliable description of motivation to engage in special interests. This study indicates that individuals with ASC are highly motivated to engage in their special interest, and are more motivated than controls by intrinsic motivational factors, some of which are associated with positive affect. This has implications for research and clinical practice. Autism Res 2016, 9: 677-688. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2016 · doi:10.1002/aur.1560