Bumping this because it seems easier than making my own thread about ADOS.
Well at first when I read about ADOS I thought it would be easy to pass and would only indicate autism in more severe cases. I thought that as long as you could understand "first order" communication skills then you'd pass. Well when I took it in 2012, I scored pretty high. I actually scored in the autism range , not the autism spectrum range- and I seem normal to most people. I thought I passed - but I didn't do as well as I thought. The ADOS module 4 is what they give to verbal adults. None of it tests "first order communication skills" , all of it tests higher order communication skills that you may not even have to use on an everyday basis.
They had me do tasks like :
1. had me complete a puzzle in which I needed to ask the examiner to give me each piece. This tests how well you are at engaging another person while completing a task (focusing more on the puzzle will give a more autistic score).
2. Had me "read" a book that had no words- only pictures. --- measures how much you can read a person's emotions and interpret nonverbal cues. For me, reading the book was harder than it sounds. The examiner not only looks at how well you describe the plot, but also pays a lot of attention to how you describe the character's emotions and what they are thinking. If you only discuss what the character is doing on each page, you will have a more autistic score than if you talk about what they are feeling, thinking,etc.
3. Had me describe words such as "friendship" , "love", "happiness", "sadness" etc.
4. Had me make up a story with random objects as "action figures".
I think the ADOS could give a "positive" to a person who has adapted to no longer qualify for a DSM diagnosis - because it measures so many things in isolation that it doesn't describe a true picture of someone's presentation in a true social setting (where there is context , etc. to make up for any difficulties in specific skills).
05 Dec 2014, 4:05 pm
