Use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)?

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Hi everyone,
I am an autistic Speech and Language Therapist working within a Children's Neurodevelopmental Assessment Pathway in the UK. I am currently conducting a small, informal project to evaluate the use of the ADOS as an assessment tool within our service. I am gathering the perspectives of people who have been involved with the ADOS - parents, professionals, autistic adults and children - or indeed any other assessment tools or processes. I am keen to hear about different people's experiences of assessment, although particularly in relation to the ADOS, whether positive or negative. I am happy for you to message me if you prefer. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks

I was diagnosed with ASD as an adult about four years ago, using the ADOS as part of a battery of other tests.

I don't know the details of how the ADOS is scored, but I have to admit I'm a bit skeptical of its reliability, at least with adults. My score was definitely in the autistic range, but I happen to be a person who doesn't mask to anywhere near the extent that many autistic adults (especially women) tend to do . I suspect that the ADOS might have a lot of false negatives with people who mask more than I do.

I was dx with ASD2 using the DSM5, in 2018.

My report is very detailed overall with lots of test scores for all the different measures, but my ADOS score isn't listed as a number. I have no idea what the number was or what number is needed.




When I did my assessment I didn't know about ADOS ahead of time so I had no preconceived notion of other people's complaints about it being too childish, or about the score being important. I'm not really even sure which part of my assessment the ADOS was. Is that the part where you interpret a picture book? I was awful at that. I couldn't even recognise the character from page to page because he was dreaming and kept changing clothes. It also involved the game of chess, and I don't know chess at all so I didn't know what all the pieces meant or how to name them. Was it the part where they give you a little pile of toys? I don't remember much about that except that I was supposed to make up a story with them or something. Again I fell short with imagination. I do have a good imagination overall but not in relation to other people's prompts or physical objects (toys) that aren't my own. If it was about my own toys or my own writing, I would have had a lot more to say.