The ADOS - advice needed

[sleepyhorse]

Hi there my 5 yr old ds has been struggling with social communication - at first the professional thought it stemmed from his severe language disorder but now concern has been raised by school that it could be ASD. So the pediatrician has asked the school ed phych to do the ADOS on ds which surprised me as I thought this was done by the pediatrician? Anyway I just wondered what exactly happens in the examination and will anyone else be present?

Thanks for reading

The Ados will look to your DS as if somebody is playing with him. We had it when DS was 3. There was a table full of toys. They looked how DS is playing with the toys (e.g. pretent play), checked if he was able to copy actions, what his eye cobtact was like, if he used language/communication to ask more (bubbles and chocolate etc), etc. Took about 40 mins and was done by Salt and a Paed together (one played with DS, the other scored in the meantime).

Didn't know an EP can do an Ados either.

I always thought it had to be done by a multidisciplinary team rather than just one individual?

Well I'm presuming it will be the ed phyc - I have a copy of a letter sent from the community pediatrician to the ed phyc saying "I would be grateful if you could arrange for to undertake an ADOS and for you to arrange for a formal assessment if his cognitive abilities".....???

DS' ADOS was very much like sunnyfriday said, it was conducted by 2 paeds and lasted about 1:15 hrs. DS loved it, he got to play with one of his favourite toys and had 2 grown ups listening to his random camping stories!

At my DD's ADOS there was a consultant from the Child Development Centre who took a history and asked us loads of questions - then at the same time a SALT played games and spoke to my dd. One of the nursery school teachers from my DD's school came too and provided some comments. The two professionals then consulted, filled in the "score sheet" and gave us their comments.

I think there usually is a multi-disciplinary team involved with an ADOS.

Hope it goes ok.

An EP does not do an ADOS; this is usually done by a developmental paed along with other similarly qualified people as part of the overall assessment. EP can only advise on educational needs.

I would seek clarification from the community paed asap.