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Extreme Demand Avoidance 8-item measure (EDA-8) is a brief caregiver-report measure of EDA traits for caregivers of children aged 5 – 17 years. EDA-8 may be a useful tool to identify children on the autism spectrum who show an extreme response to demands, as a starting point for more in-depth assessment. The EDA-8 supersedes the original 26 items Extreme Demand Avoidance Questionnaire (EDA-Q).
You can create a free account on PsyPack to access fillable PDFs, manuals and educational resources for the EDA-8
All items are scored as follows: Not true = 0; Somewhat true = 1, Mostly true = 2, Very true = 3.
Scores over 19 could indicate the need for more in-depth measurement of EDA, but do not necessarily suggest a PDA-profile.
PsyPack can automatically score the EDA-8 assessment and prepare corresponding tables and graphs.
Further, PsyPack automatically plots a graph to help you easily track progress over time.
Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), Autism Spectrum Disorders
The purpose of the evaluation is to:
Caregiver-Rated
Clinical
Questionnaire
5 to 17 years
Less than 5 minutes
Since the questionnaire relies on client's observations, all responses should be verified by the clinician, and a definitive diagnosis is made on clinical grounds taking into account how well the client understood the questionnaire, as well as other relevant information from the client.
Please note that the EDA-8 was designed to measure EDA traits for research purposes, and is not a diagnostic instrument.
Author's research shows that the EDA-8 scale can measure the severity of EDA characteristics well at modest levels, but at high levels, more in-depth measurement is needed.
Scores over 19 could indicate the need for more in-depth measurement of EDA, but do not necessarily suggest a PDA-profile.
This questionnaire asks about a person’s presentation not the causation of this presentation. There are a range of reasons for why a person may present with extreme demand avoidance besides PDA. More in-depth assessment is needed to establish whether a PDA profile underpins demand avoidance behaviours. This would consider early development and any situational factors affecting current behaviour. More information about identifying and assessing for a PDA profile can be found at https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/what-is-pda-menu/identifying-assessing-pda/.
O’Nions, Happé, Viding & Noens (2021) Extreme Demand Avoidance in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Refinement of a Caregiver-Report Measure. Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 5, 269–281 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41252-021-00203-z