ADOS

[deeeja]

Well, sorry for that late post, but here are my notes and description of what happened at the ados test.
The psychologist was very pleasant, and surprisingly young, a bit like policemen getting younger and younger .
Anyway, at first she asked me to call my ds into the room to follow everyone in, ha ha what a laugh! Ofcourse ds paid no attention at all. After a few minutes, did what I usually do, picked him up and took him in, him holding on to a sock which he had been carrying all day. He wouldn't let go of said sock, which made the test very interesting.
Ds was shown toys, and would only rub them with sock, and lick them, as usual. The only one he would play with in any way was the 'cause and effect' one with buttons and things popping out, for a few seconds. He would not look at psych or me. Then he saw the toy with lights and music, which he would not let out of his sight. I was asked to call him while he played with it, he did not respond not even once, even when I tickled him. The toy was brought out with other toys when it was time for a break from the more structured activities, to see how he did with free play.
He was directed towards play with a number of different toys, to test if he would anticipate an activity, copy the psychologist, give eye contact, request non-verbally or verbally,etc.
He was shown a toy car,which he pushed up and down on the table but not in a playful way, but just as if he is moving his hand back and forth in an idle way iykwim. He did not look at psych still. He kept his eyes firmly on the table. He was given some wooden bricks which he looked at and them put down. The psych tried to get him to look at her and to play with the toys, She attempted to arounc 5 or 6 times, before giving up.
He was shown a remote controll rabbit which hopped etc, but he moved away from it, refused to play with it, and a jack-in-the-box, which he also refused to look at.
He only wanted to play with the toy with lights and music. They also tried rolling a ball to him and he took no notice, other than to throw it over his head, he was supposed to roll it back I think.
THen they brought out a bubble machine, to see if he would follow the bubbles and try to pop them etc. He did very well in this task, I think, but he has done it before many times. He made eye-contact, and enjoyed the activity, and requested more bubbles.
It all ended with a 'birthday party' which he has been taught. But it was obvious it had been taught, and the psych made a note of it.
He also had snacks, which he asked for quite well. However he had trouble choosing and took both types, they only had crisps and biscuits. He put a crisp and a biscut in his mouth at the same time,.
He had regular breaks throughout for 'free play', and bubble play.
He quite liked the pl-ados, apart from the jack-in-the-box and the rabbit.
After a break, it was time to administer the Bailey scales. He hated this and got tired and upset, so it had to be abandoned after around 15 mins, at my request. It was mostly puzzles, and matching pictures. Ds can manage these activities, but he was tired of the level of social interaction that is required. He kept asking for the bubbles, and lying on the floor and playing with his fingers. It had to stop.
I get the results on Wednesday.
The psych did say that she wanted to observe him a few more times, and asked whether he was receiving much in the way of intervention. She said she will be recommending pecs. All in all she was quite alot better versed in asd than any other professional I have spoken to. She also could tell that some of the activities had been learned. She said that ds gave attention to activities and eye contact, but only on his terms, and she praised me for the work I have been doing with him, although I don't really know what I am doing, and ds largely ignores me anyway
It is a good test, but difficult to be reminded of my ds's problems, because I mostly make allowances for him, and the ados brings it all out in the open. I was quite impressed with the pl-ados, but I will with-hold final judgment until I see the results on Wednesday.

[aquariusmum]

Very interesting Deeja, similar but not exactly the same as my experience. Don't accept any IQ results they give you as he clearly didn't co-operate and I know I found it upsetting as I didn't think they reflected my DS's true understanding, given that he had been banging his head on the door to get out during most of the so-called non-verbal IQ test! Sorry, know that I bang on too much about this, but if I can save one person what I went through on these silly intelligence tests - it's way too early to be making definititve statements about their intelligence anyway IMHO!

[aefondkiss]

thank you for the update Deeja, sorry it was so hard to be there...