New & Going for My Assessment

Post Reply New Topic

I love cats.
Seriously (well, that was serious), I registered here as "diagnosed" because I'd be very surprised if I didn't get an ASD dx. Not sure what else it could be. I already have lots of psych diagnoses but not all can be accurate or entities unto themselves. I already had my interview, at which point it was decided that it would be worthwhile to continue with the ASD-specific testing. I've been "researching" assessment protocols and have seen ADOS-2, ADI-R, AQ, EQ and IQ mentioned. I have no idea what they're planning for me, but testing goes from 9am to 5pm. They said there will be lots of breaks.
OK, just googling ADOS-2, ADI-R, AQ, EQ and IQ led me to UC Denver's site. I know it's from 2014, pre-revised ADOS and ADI but the page seems to give a pretty good idea of what else they use, such as SQ, RAADS-R, AAA, ASQ, SRS, SCQ and looks like more. Maybe faces and such. Alphabet soup. They also need collateral from someone who knows me really well.
I'm afraid to take the IQ portion. Verbal is just fine. I've written books and started talking early, but with math and spatial dragging the quotient down, I may well score in the MR range. So I'm studying test Qs from Weschler and Binet online. It's a lot to memorize.
Anyway, it's about time I get diagnosed but I wish I had known decades ago.

Don't worry about being bad at math and spatial stuff. It's common for autistic people to be good at some things, bad at other things. Autistic people vary widely as to which specific things we are good at vs. which specific things we are bad at, but our cognitive profiles generally tend to be much more uneven than most people's.

Anyhow, in order for the test results to be useful to you and your therapist, beyond just giving you a label, they need to reflect your actual abilities reasonably accurately. (The label "ASD" by itself doesn't actually tell you very much about yourself; it's an extremely heterogeneous category.) So there's not much point in trying to inflate your scores on particular parts of the IQ test.

True.
It's mostly for my ego, which isn't implicated in a diagnosis.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Regardless of your diagnosis, you will always be welcomed here.

thank you!

Welcome to Wrong Planet . But studying for an IQ test sounds like a bad idea .

It's not good to falsify but why not train?

Last edited by Aspi on 12 Mar 2020, 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

One time I had a special breed of cat. It was called the Maine Coon. The breed had a genetic defect that they tried to breed out. My cat had 6 claws on each paw. It was a most loving and gentle cat. It had a very unusual disposition. It was fearless. When it was a baby, our large dog would approach it. Most cats would snarl at the dog and hiss and display its claws. But this cat just sat very patiently. It the dog came too close, the cat would swipe at it and the dog would retreat utterly astonished. The paws on the cat when it was small were huge. They call this breed the Hemingway Cat, because when Hemingway was alive he had many running around his mansion.

Meow!
I love Maine Coons! And I spent 4 days with the polydactyls at the Hemingway House in Key West!

Hi, and Welcome. I'm excited for you. The only advice I can give with your assessment is be yourself and just do things the way that comes natural to you. The IQ testing doesn't have much to do with the ASD diagnosis, it just to determine an additional qualifier.

The assessment is a social situation and the assessor will be observing how you do things, but resist the social conditioning to mask any social awkwardness. A good assessor will be able to see through some of masking you may do, but if you are skilled at faking NT, this isn't the time to use those skills. Be yourself and you will get an accurate result.

Thank you.
I get where you're coming from. I'll. just be me.
I wonder how they can pinpoint our masking. Is it just a feeling?

Hi and a very warm welcome to you ! From a fellow cat lover(who is owned by 2 ragdoll cats ) All the best with the testing ... Good to have you with us.

Aw, thank mew!
I <3 ragdolls.

Welcome to the forum! I hope you find it useful and enjoy it here

I love cats too! Do you have any cats yourself or a favourite type? I have a Ragdoll

I love ragdolls. Are they common in the UK?
My chausie died on 2-20 of this year (last month). She was the light of my life, as was my Siamese before she passed in 2012.

No, not just a feeling. Masking of symptoms is recognized as an issue in the DMS-5 criteria. There are checklists and some self report questionnaires available, but they are new and not many assessors use them yet. In the last few years researchers have asked adults autistics what compensatory strategies they use to manage social situations.

Last edited by aquafelix on 15 Mar 2020, 6:34 am, edited 1 time in total.