Can we talk about ADOS experiences?

[FloorWipes]

Have just had mine and I can't stop going over it in my mind trying to understand what it was about and how they might score my responses! I will be waiting a few weeks for results and that seems long. I know it's better for people who haven't done it not to read about it in detail so not sure how much specifics we can go into though I desperately want to. It was such a strange experience! How did you find it?

I found it invalidating.

My "scores" played down so much, they didn't even ask a bunch of questions because I am married (to another late-diagnosed autistic), they didn't ask about the self harming behaviour I was even exhibiting in front of them (skin picking).

I'm sorry to hear that! Them not asking about the skin picking seems strange. I also see questions in the script that I wasn't asked and am wondering why. There was so much I didn't get the chance to say. I felt really caught off guard with the emotion questions.

I got asked to describe my house ...err yeah doors windows bedrooms lounge kitchen bathroom..
I told the assessor his questions were weird and didn't make sense or relate to autism
He got shirty and said ...they are not my questions,and he waved some book at me .
I still got diagnosed

Interesting! I didn't get asked to describe my house. Strange question. Again I wonder what are they looking for with that?

I keep going over everything again and again. I feel really uneasy about it.

There are so many layers to it. For example, I made little eye contact in the assessment because of nervousness and fear of judgement. But in general I think my eye contact in daily life would look normal. So how will they interpret this and how should they interpret it?

In the fake break, I knew it was a fake break. I didn't say I knew. I don't know if I should have said? I don't know if they can tell I knew. I didn't know what to do during that. Argh.

The only ADOS experience I have is the one above the none verbal one for little kids. (DC) the other dc didn't need one and neither did I

Apparently you only get one here if you are marginal. I wasn't. However, I did go over the assessment wondering if I had copied traits off the kids, if i had read too much etc...

Well that makes sense because I am marginal.

Hello,

I had ados4. Thunk it's useless to use a child test on an adult where unlike a child participant you are aware you're being assessed and constantly reminded of this with each exercise consisting of child toys and books. I honestly think a person could be on the spectrum but if had several assesment with several specialists the outcome would differ and same if you were not on the spectrum. Plus as an adult there seems to be no help other than helping you to understand yourself. It can actually work against you if you share with others who are ignorant to the nuances of how debilitating it is.

I thought about that too - having different outcomes if you did the test again. Reading more accounts online, it sounds like people are sometimes given subtly different instructions for the tasks (of course people could be misreporting this but it seems very plausible that it could be the case). Realising that made me question the validity a lot more. The exact words used in asking me to explain the book are really important in how I approach the task.

Not all practitioners are great but good ones should still be able to see indications of ASD. Yes I struggled with understanding what exactly I had to describe about the book or in the story telling. General quite an uncomfortable feeling.

I really want to know how I did and I still have weeks to wait for my follow up appointment. It's hard to cope with the uncertainty. I'm also not even sure whether I will be able to accept the result from this either way.

The test really upset me in some way. I think my "performance" on the tasks was mixed. I always knew I'd struggle using the objects to tell a story and indeed I managed something super basic and it's odd to me that I could be so bad at that! I could understand what was happening in the story book plot wise without great difficulty (some picture books are harder but this one I found ok), though I focused on concrete plot points rather than emotions or any additional imagined back story, if that's significant? I was oddly confused about what happened in the fisherman cartoon - the second and third last frames didn't seem to make much sense in terms of how they came about. But no issue recalling and retelling it frame by frame whilst standing up - again in the concrete terms of facts of what happened - and I used mime party to help me recall the images if that means anything - helped me map out the events of objects moving a to b etc. I think I missed an attempt or two to engage in back and forth conversation but I took up most opportunities. For example the examiner inserted herself into my description of my holiday so I asked her about hers since she was clearly angling for that. I also asked her how she felt about one of the events she recounted since it sounded very serious and I am always interested to understand how people respond to adversity because it's very fascinating to me.

It has all sent me into a spiral of "what even is autism".The truth is that I don't think I genuinely lack theory of mind (not now in my mid 30s and I actually remember the precise moment as a child when I realised other people have minds) and I don't think I have a hard time reading facial expressions (I'm a good mimic and a pattern spotter, I've studied acting, I've lived in 3 countries and have 3 cultures' worth of facial expressions library stored up there, and has anyone noticed that platforms like YouTube have led to a new set of facial expressions that didn't exist before). But then maybe I have blind spots here I'm unaware of?

I relate to autism more so in the monotropism sense. I hyperfocus and I miss things when I'm focused elsewhere. Socialising is an effort where unrelated to my interests. People are unrelatable because they aren't likely to share my sorts of interests.

I'm beginning to wonder how I've ended up here and if it's all actually totally meaningless.

Apparently my ADOS was strongly indicative of autism.

However I haven't been given the specific score and I was told they don't recommend reading the report as it can be too upsetting.

I'm not sure I really believe I could be autistic. I feel so conflicted about it all.

That sounds exactly like my assessment.
After in my follow up report it said that there examiner told me something about himself, waiting for me to ask him about that ..and I didn't..they also said I had no back and forth conversation and the conversation was often awkward and the examiner felt awkward at the gaps I left in the conversation..
That was not how I remembered it at all ..I don't even remember the questions he said he asked ..he said at one point I completely talked over him ,,..and a few times I ignored his comments and didn't follow up with a question back for him .
Why would I give him a question back ...it was an assessment,not up to me to question him ..if they wanted that they should of been specific and said ..let's have a conversation...I know conversation is back and forth ..I know what to do in a conversation,I'm not stupid ..but this was called an assessment..not a conversation,so why would I be asking the assessor questions...
I felt like I'd failed after ..I knew full well I'd not done what he wanted ,but I couldn't put my finger on what bits ..other than the talking over him bit ..as I did go on about house music a bit

Yes, exactly. Surely we all knew we were not there for a chat so it would seem strange to start having a back and forth about something irrelevant.