ADOS question #5943737

kcisthebombdotcom

Sorry I'm asking so many questions--I'm just so nervous! I've read a little bit about it online but it doesn't seem to answer my questions. Is there any portion of the test that relies on parent reporting? I looked up the activities online and its all things she will perform well with--she has great pretend play skills and is very sociable, has nice eye contact and joint attention with adults. Combined with the fact her sensory issues are fairly mild right now she may appear more typical-hoping that shifts before the test so they get an indicator of what the bad times look like. If she overperforms what should be my next move?

kcisthebombdotcom

-auntie- said:

Nope. 

Are they going to just do the ADOS or will they be backing it up with CARS-2 or GARS?

FWIW, the ADOS2 doesn't really have a sensory component; at least it doesn't challenge a person with sensory tasks. 

Do you know if they'll be doing the toddler module or will they be doing 1,2 or 3?

Eek,that sucks. My neurodevelopmental pedi will do the ADOS and then we get the gars and vineland through the school psych. I found the CARS online and she scored as not autistic but the right on the cusp between not autistic and mild autism though I'm sure that doesn't mean much. I stay at home with her so she's not in childcare though I do work out and take her to the gym. If they come back with no autism because she performs well in the ados, could I request they come see her there?

kcisthebombdotcom

YellowLilies said:

Oh, and we were also referred to pediatric genetics, so that could be your next step too. 20% of children with autism also have a genetic condition, so all kids with asd diagnosis from the clinic we went to are referred to genetics. We are waiting on our results from that, but I really doubt they will show up anything (and the genetics doc didn't think so either).

Ha, we did the reverse. We've already been through genetics.

annibes

They may ask you if her reactions are typical, but they won't take your report into consideration for scoring. You'd be surprised at how many items are left out for actual scoring. They're going to look a lot at her initiation of social interactions as well as her reasons for interacting. I (and another SLP at work) just practiced the ADOS-2 on DS at work on Friday. He scored really well on certain tasks and poorly on others so I wasn't sure what the final count would say, but damnit if the algorithms didn't count every single thing he has trouble with and didn't incorporate what he did well, haha. My coworker was giving me the side-eye during the eval and said "are you sure he has autism?" jokingly a couple of times when he made eye contact and followed her gaze. But yep, still autistic. There are limitations to any standardized test and it should never stand alone in a diagnostic process, but it is a pretty handy tool and looks at a lot of the right things.