survey about autism and adverse life events

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I'm doing a survey about the impact of adverse life events on autistic children.

If you have a child under 18 and would like to participate, click this link:

https://www.esurveycreator.com/s/5df346a

I tried to complete, but had difficulty.

Sometimes the stem included two items that I could not choose one answer to. For example, items pairing imaginative play and making friends. I would not answer the same for both. While her play did not meet the "standard" definition of imaginative (for example, she never fed a doll,) she has always been highly imaginative in her own way. But although she was imaginative as a toddler/preschooler, she had no interest in making friends.

For some of the items, asking when she stopped having issues...she hasn't stopped. I don't know how to answer that because I don't know what age she will be when she stopped.

For those items that ask me to answer "yes" "Used to but not anymore" and "no" Sometimes I can't pick an answer. I need some kind of gradient. For example, on the questions gleaning information about ADHD, I can't really pick "no," because the items are somewhat true, but when I compare her to her brother, who has clear ADHD, I don't really feel right in choosing "yes," either, because his issues were so magnified compared to hers. I would like to have a "sometimes" kind of answer on the Yes side and "not usually" on the "no" side.

I also didn't see options for not knowing for sure, or suspecting but not having confirmation. This is in the area for abuse. It doesn't apply to my daughter's situation, but there may be parents who suspect their child has been abused, but do not know for sure. Also, some adoptive parents or foster parents may not know exactly what happened to their child before they came into their lives.

I didn't make it to the end, so I might have had more feedback, but I felt like I was perhaps going to give you skewed information because of the issues noted above. There was also something missing altogether in the questions I answered which are a huge issue for us, and that is selective mutism. My daughter is able to communicate very well at some points, but not at all at other points.

None of this is meant as criticism of you, of course. I am just trying to share some feedback as someone who tried to complete your survey and found that I couldn't. Another thing that I could not figure out how to represent in your survey was that her father and I were separated for awhile. But she never went months without seeing him, only weeks. Also, we live in an area that was affected by Hurricane Sandy, and although we suffered no direct loss, I think it was more traumatic to her than to her typical friends who also suffered no direct loss, as she tended to perseverate. So even though there was no direct impact, it still affected her due to proximity.

I hope this feedback is helpful.

Maybe it was me interpreting the question differently at different times? Sometimes I do that, especially when I am forced to answer "yes" or "no" questions when I really want a question that allows graded responses.

I've had to move the survey to a new site. Please use this link instead:

https://eSurv.org?s=LOOEOO_375faca7