To ask how you found the ADOS?

[MardyMarie]

My daughter has her ADOS scheduled for the beginning of January. I'm certain she has ASC but terrified it won't be picked up at her ADOS appointment. She's good at masking at school and a wreck at home. I wish they could see her in real life situations rather than a short appointment she can pretend through and then break down afterwards. How did you find the ADOS?

thought my ds had not done enough to get a diagnosis, but he did. the one bit he really struggled with was not understanding the dr pretending to have a sink. he looked for it under the table.

there are different schedules for different ages and language abilitities of children.

We didn't have to go through it ds2 is severly autistic and was diagnosed at three and a half just bear in mind the professionals are highly trained they are normally very good imo.

My two boys have ASD and we didn’t have that. They both had various observations by different ASD panel members and then they discussed the findings.

What is ADOS? Sorry to be silly, I’ve heard this term a lot but never actually knew what it is x x

Dd3 is the queen of masking, I never thought ADOS would pick up her autism, she was diagnosed using a DISCO assessmet however she has since been tested using ADOS for different reasons and has very clearly met the threshold for Autism both times.

Its not perfect for a female presentation but it can pick up subtleties.

Good luck 💐

Oh and my son is exactly the same. A model student, hides his anxieties at school, comes home and he totally flips. It’s like no one believes me!!!

It was very revealing for both my DC. DS1 was nearly 3 and DS3 was just turned 4. Both engaged with the clinicians really well and had a blast. They met the ADOS criteria for ASD and along with the other parts of the assessments both were diagnosed with ASD.

I'm watching this with interest as my dd is due to have this in the new year.
She's also the queen of masking at school and I'm so worried the ados won't reflect this. It's heartening to hear other's experiences.

And I'd also add that the report DS3 had from nursery stated he presented with no difficulties there whatsoever. They didn't disbelieve the dx btw but the nursery structure suited him perfectly so they never saw any of his issues.

School haven't been helpful at all. She doesn't play with others outside and waits by the spot where they queue to go in because she's obsessed by being first = she's just shy and keen to learn. She's inconsolable if she makes a mistake = she's a perfectionist.

The doctor didn't even ask to see her at her last appointment (she stayed in the waiting area with her dad) because she knew she wouldn't engage. I hope they don't just pass her off as shy.

I got the results and my sons diagnosis today...if I'm honest I thought it would look like he was fine during the "test" he wrote an imaginative story but they obviously picked up on things like eye contact and other things and it has taken years for this.

Oh and my son only really engaged through part of it, with the normal appointments he engages around 15 percent which is why it's been hard.

I bet you're feeling relieved Lola

Another one adding to the group that were convinced that their child masked/wouldn’t meet the criteria. He did, by a country mile!

My DS did it in October, and refused to answer any of the questions about emotions, and scored well for social reciprocity, because he’ll have a conversation about dinosaurs with anyone who offers.
They had no hesitation in diagnosing his ASC.
I think it depends mostly on the clinician doing it, but it should certainly be possible for them to see past ‘masking’.