Hello Again,

I'm curious who's child has been assessed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). I've heard really good things about this test and I was wondering if folks were willing to share as many details as possible about the types of things they do during this test.

I've heard that you can look for the types of things they assess during your child's normal play. Not that I'm trying to be a psychologist, but I know many of these tests can be performed by a "non-professional" if you know what you're looking for.

Anyone willing to go into detail about the ADOS? Thanks a lot!

John

Why do you think you need the ADOS observation?


you can observe your child yourself!
1. Does he pretend-play or make-believe play thereby using his imagination?
Do his toys talk to each other and what do they say? Observe him when he is unaware of your presence and listen to him. (probably these are things you already do.)

2. Is he affectionate with his toys? do his toys have fun and treat each other nicely?
3. Does he want you to play with him or does he prefer to be alone?

5. Do his cars and trains do what they are supposed to do? Or is he throwing them all over the room or jumping up and down on them?
Is he destructive?

6. Does he laugh while playing and think playing is fun? Does he do funny things then laugh at himself knowing he is funny?

7. does he agree to stop playing when asked and move to another task easily?

While a child is absorbed and quietly playing you can talk to him and he may tell you what is bothering him.
This is because the conscious mind is relaxed while playing and essentially gets out of the way so the subconscious mind can reveal the truth about a problem. Even barely verbal children can reveal their feelings and anxieties.

if you are concerned after your own observations, then by all means have him observed. it will take a trained professional to determine what is going on.
but Your intuition is your best friend so trust yourself.

my son was recently evaluated using the ADOS and it was quite intense. he is 6 years old and it was a 4 part (4 seperate appts.) evaluation process. he was first evaluated by a devlopmental ped. followed by a speech eval.,psychological and lastly a behavioral assessment. the team then got together and discussed the results and dx. i am not really able to explain the process because they do not encourage parent involvement and believe a child does better without the parent in attendance. that is certanly true in my case as my son usually looks to me for "help" if he does not know how to answer. i will say that based on the LENGTHY evals that i received from the specialists it's pretty much play based stuff. they want the child in a very comfortable, natural environment. i would only imagine that it's in your child's best interest to have a specialist administer this eval. there were certain things that were brought to my attention by this team of experts that i would have never really picked up on. (ie. a bit of eye squinting that my son does, touching his mouth a bit excessively.)

My son has had the ADOS. We are using a therapy program that gathers scientific evidence of success so they use the benchmark standards as their means of testing rather than using their own tests. Although no one agrees that the ADOS is even remotely appropriate to determine true functioning.

I talked in-depth to the psychologist that administered the test and she showed me the test, each part and we discussed what they were looking at and expecting from each part. There is one part where the therapist blows up a balloon and lets it go. The EXPECTED result is that the child goes to get the balloon and IMMEDIATELY returns it to the therapist for her to do it again. WHAT??? Would a typical kid do this? NO, they would do the same thing my kid did...immediately go get the balloon and try to blow it up themselves to produce the same result. If given enough time to try and then fail, my child would have returned the balloon to the therapist (we tested it at a different time). The demand during the testing is that they immediately return it and it doesn't allow for them to explore it before doing so. This is just one example of the TRUE flaws in the ADOS. Yet, on a yearly basis, we administer the ADOS to measure therapy results.

There are MUCH better tests to determine extent of functioning or dysfunction of autistic kids. These tests take into account the extra processing time required by our kids. The ADOS really should be updated using the latest information we have about autism. By simply adding 45 seconds processing time for each activity, most of our kids would generally score much higher.

One more thing, in the original post the poster had asked about getting this done by a non-professional. I don't know if I'd do that as people who are CERTIFIED to administer the test have had some extensive training on how to administer the test and how to SCORE the test. So if you are going to do it, just go ahead and pay for someone who is certified to do it. However, like I said in my last post, the ADOS is NOT the best test for determining true function of autistic. In my mind, it is very outdated.

Some other activities that are done as part of ADOS:
1. A lot of toys are put out on the floor (10-15 toys) and the children are given 3 minutes of free play. The EXPECTED result is that they will try to explore as many of the toys as possible within the 3 minutes. Well, if your kid finds a toy he is most interested in and plays with it for 2 minutes then has time to explore only 1 or 2 more of the toys ...whammo..he fails that part.

2. There is a pretend birthday party. There are toys to set up a birthday party like a plastic cake, chairs, table, action figures/dolls. The EXPECTED result is that the kids will role play a part of the birthday party as the typical peers who have been to birthday parties would do. My kid gets overloaded by sensory input (sound/crowd) so he has NEVER been to a birthday party so he didn't know what to do...FAILED that part too.

I cannot remember some of the other activities on the test but I remember walking away from our discussion (looking at the test and her explaining the EXPECTED result) thinking what a waste of time and effort the ADOS is and just how inaccurate the results are for autistics.

Based on the description of this test, it sounds like most kids would fail. I'd like to see them test "normal" kids against the ones they think are autistic. I bet our normal kids would fail too.

Honestly! some of the most textbook-smart people are so dumb. And these are the ones testing and evaluating our kids.

I believe children age 10 down are different now adays and their brains are formed differently for some reason. Perhaps it is evolution. Maybe it is our environment.

But the outdated modes of testing and teaching need to be put aside and room made for the different kids. Most of these children who have recovered from autism and SID and dyslexia, etc. are quite brilliant. Maybe not the most social but brilliant in special fields.