ADOS insight?

[Jerbil]

i wanted to know if anyone can offer me any insight to ADOS? My DS had it recently, and while I know I won't have been looking for all indications of ASD I just wonder if the fact that he couldn't pretend to brush his teeth, didn't sing happy birthday or blow candles out, failed to play with dolls among other things. DS seemed only interested in hiding a few toys and looking at the DIY object on the table rather than playing with the other toys. DS laughed at an attempt for him to play with the doll also.

He is being assessed for ASD and/or Learning Difficulties

Just going a little bit stir crazy in the wait for results. DS is extremely verbal and if you were to meet for a short duration you may not think anything is wrong. But when you've spent the whole weekend removing sellotape from a multitude of household objects we think again!

Hi, sorry no experience of ADOS, although it sounds very similar to the multi-agency assessment by SALT and paed on my DS, 8.5 years ago. I had to wait 6 months and 2 further observations by paed until firm DX. Anyway, at least it's bumped.

I think the best thing to do while waiting for a dx, is to assume he does have ASD, read up on it, and adjust your parenting to match......

The thing about ADOS is it's all in the scoring. They literally plot certain characteristics and observations onto a graph, and if you 'score' a certain way then you're on the spectrum. But you can still score 'abnormally' and NOT be on the spectrum IYSWIM. So my DS isn't on the spectrum (according to ADOS) but still has a number of traits that you would expect to see in someone who was on the spectrum, all wrapped up in a handily non-specific communication delay or disorder dx.

It's not a magic bullet and you may not come away from it with a dx - and I know in the early days I was entirely dx focused so I found that aspect of it really frustrating.

And what Indigo said - do some research and try some strategies - you don't need to wait for a dx.

Thanks for this. I have been reading up today. Seems like there's a lot to learn.

Ordinary Jo - did they want to repeat the test in a couple of years?

DS had the ADOS test on his own so I can't shed any light on what happened (he was 8), but when they were talking to me about it at his dx meeting they said that the ADOS test stresses children with ASD and doesn't stress NT children. I don't know though if that is true of younger children, or even if that is how they score it. All I do know is that when DS was first seen at school by the ASD team they knew he had ASD within 20 mins, he then went on to score very highly in the ADOS.

Bochead - he has been discharged from the service at the moment, but definitely potential to re-test in the future. Need to observe him closely (like we wouldn't anyway) but the consultant was quite clear that we may find the dx changes as the 'social complexity' changes - ie classmates will move on and social interaction will become more complex and DS might not keep pace with more complex demands.

Little - that's interesting because DS had so many atypical presentations that no-one felt confident dx-ing him, and ADOS was presented to me as pretty much infallible...

OdinaryJo, i was told my DS was presenting ATYPICAL too but the ADOS test showed him as scoring very highly and got him the DX.