33 and had ADOS testing. Curious on opinions of assessment

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So I’m waiting on results. I don’t want to make this long by doing a whole introduction of my symptoms and life up to this point. Just that I have a strong inkling my family knew something about me growing up that I didn’t. (I was in an IEP during elementary, middle, and high school. Was only told I had a “learning disability” and then my family would get extremely angry if I brought up the word “disability”. Anyways not gonna delve into more if that since really I just am curious here about the assessment. I purposely didn’t look into it going in because I just wanted to be actual myself. Soo now that I’m waiting on results I was curious about what the tests they did indicate which led me down a rabbit hole of research anyways :

Don’t read if you haven’t done the testing yet!!














The Frog Book: she had me choose from 2 books but I like animals so I chose the one with the frog cover. I panicked immediately and told her that I’m not good at making up stories and I never have been. But I tried…mostly I just described the stuff in the page and occasionally I got side tracked because the frogs were cute lol and they’re flying on lily pads! Like how fun is that? Lol so I would just be like “the frogs are flying on the lily pads because they’re probably aliens. And this one is named Jim”. Idk why I named the damn frog Jim I just felt like he looked liked a main character and needed a name idk I feel stupid now like what was the correct response? What would a neurotypical have done? I also said the old lady was controlling the frogs and that’s why she was chill with them in her house.


Putting together puzzle pieces : I’m really embarrassed to admit this but….I didn’t know until looking at other peoples responses online that the assessment giver was purposely giving me the wrong amount of puzzle pieces. I would just put the pieces down and be like oh…I need more and this happened like 4 more times I thought she was just forgetting. I don’t know the “correct response” to that either. Was I supposed to get mad? Was I supposed to stay calm ? Nothing makes sense it’s all an illusion lol



Grabbing 5 random items and telling a story: ok I remember this one vividly because I remember thinking I messed up bad. I chose a small toy car, a popsicle stick, toy glasses, a toothpick umbrella, and a bead. I’m horrible at story telling this. I placed the popsicle stick on the table to pretend it was a bridge. Then I put the stupid glasses on the car! And I was like “we’re just gonna pretend this is like the cars movie and they talk” (I don’t even like that movie lmao) i out the umbrella on the opposite side of the bridge so it was all lined up neatly and I tried to use the bead to hold up the umbrella but it kept falling and I was so embarrassed because in my head the bead was gonna like hold up the umbrella ☂️ so I could pretend it was on a beach and the car was going on vacation. Then the glasses fell off the car so I said the car found magic contact lenses and the end. I just don’t know what I was doing. I’m overthinking this I guess but I just wish I knew what they were looking for.



Describing tooth brushing: ok so she showed me where the sink and toothbrush are in the imaginary bathroom. I panicked because I forgot where she said the sink was and I told her I don’t remember where she out everything. she told me it was ok just make up where I want it to be. So I tried to describe super in detail like picking up the tooth brush, unscrewing the toothpaste cap, putting the cap back in etc and then I realized in my imaginary scenario the water was still running so I was like oh no am I supposed to keep the water runnin? So I said I know the water is running but we aren’t paying the bill so it’s ok and why did I say that but what was the appropriate response? I’m genuinely asking like what would a NT do? Because I don’t know anymore. I also realized I never actually physically showed her how to brush the teeth I just described in detail what to do. Apparently the internet said I should’ve physically shown? I don’t really know.


Map of the United States: it was a big cartoony map of the United States with pictures and the pictures indicated things from that state. So I was like oh well this is New York and that’s the Statue of Liberty and this is California and it has a bridge so I think that’s the Golden Gate Bridge. And she was like oh yeah yeah and kept kinda pressing me for more ? Like I basically went through half the states in the map and essentially just repeated the same stuff. “Oh this is a picture of corn and it’s in the Midwest areaso it’s probably Iowa or something”.

Fake break: I didn’t know it was fake and all I did was check my phone to clear my notifications and make sure no one texted me. I might have said a few words to her but I don’t recall what it was.

She also multiple times kept saying some variation of “I’m so bad at keeping track of time! They always tell me to be careful with my time!” And it was just like really random. And I remember thinking to myself “she must have adhd or something and maybe that’s why she chose this as a job”. But I didn’t say that out loud I would just say “oh that’s ok” every time she mentioned it or just ignore it lol I don’t know if that was part of the test though or if she genuinely just is bad at time haha



The you know there are questions that ask you to describe happiness and sadness and anger. And I tried to describe but it’s hard. I said anger is just this like intense rage where I just want to throw something lol (I didn’t tell her I have indeed thrown things) and that sadness is just sad…I do have depression so I guess sadness is just emptiness. I don’t know the correct responses to that either.

I’m not asking for a diagnosis or anything I am patiently waiting on the results but looking back now on the Assessments my curiosity has got the best of me and I just want to know if anyone can shed light I guess on what they’re supposed to be looking for? I of course am going to accept whether the results say I am or am not but I really am interested to know what exactly these assessments are probing for now that I’ve finished them. Plus I just needed to vent this out since no one in my family or my life except one friend and ex husband even know I’ve done this.

I didn't know about the ADOS test until I did one as part of my assessment.
I don't really remember it because there were so many tests that day they blur together.

I remember the doctor apologising that it was going to be a children's test.
There was a book with no words and I had to make up the story.

The character went to bed and dreamed he was different characters on every page.
I couldn't recognise him from page to page because I'm face blind.
I had no idea what was going on.
I didn't even know he was the same person dreaming.

There were also chess pieces coming to life.
I don't know anything about chess so I couldn't name those characters.

Then there was a little bag of items and I had to make a story with them.
I struggled with that but can't remember the details.
There must have been more but I forget.

In the end my report said my ADOS score was well-above the cutoff for ASD.
I don't know what the cutoff score was, or what my personal score was.
I didn't know the ADOS was a common topic of conversation or I would have asked.

Mine was 12 hours all on one day.

Welcome to wrong planet.

None of it was random and there were no right or wrong answers just answers that show autistic traits or not.

With the frogs question autistics want to be literal so might have trouble just making stuff up.

The intentionally wrong puzzles were to test how easily you get flustered or insulted if things are not what they are supposed to be.

With the random items that was what they were looking for.

Not remembering what was just said is an indication of poor short-term memory and difficulty multitasking, traits associated with autism.

Pressing you about the maps to see how easily you get flustered.

Many autistics have trouble understanding and describing their emotions. This is known as Alexithymia.

I took the Ados 2 Module 4 test not too long ago at the age of 26 where I showed no autistic traits.

I am sure I can give a good contribution to the post based on my personal experience and how I approached the exercise as a neurotypical rather as a medical expert.

If there are readers on this post who haven't yet undertaken the test, I'd advise not reading this post or doing any other prior research as it may adversely the accuracy of the result.

Starting with the first element which is the frog book called Tuesday which is a picture book without words as linked below:



I found the book a bit vague at first where you had to make up the story as you go along the best I could. There's a lot I can say about this task but I will try and keep it brief.

I started by giving the frog names at the beginning and generally went along the lines of stating that they were from another planet and stating they were mischievous youngsters who wrecked havoc on the village.

One of the main aims is to recognise the magical/fictional element of the story. Of course the assessor suggested an alternative fictional interpretation describing the story which I agreed could also be the case which showed that I didn't display cognitive rigidity. The assessor was also happy that I asked for their input and if they wanted to tell some of the story.

I also described the facial expressions of the frogs and stating their emotions which is expected for a neurotypical.

I described the frogs at the start as very happy, yet later I described an unhappy frog acting as their parent who was disappointed at the younger frogs and stated they would be grounded for causing mischief.

The assessor also picked up my use of intonations, providing character dialogues and giving social backgrounds, for example I described the man eating the cookie as someone who had just finished working a long shift and was relaxing during the evening.

In the construction task I was given a puzzle and a number of pieces and started to make the puzzle as best as I could until I realised all my pieces were in place. However, i realised the assessor had not given me enough pieces deliberately on two occasions and remained calm.

I then looked at and politely asked the examiner "could I please have more pieces?" and thanked the assessor once these pieces were received. Once all pieces were in place and the puzzle was complete, I told the assessor I was happy with the completed puzzle.

On telling the story with objects, I chose a woman, man, plane, phone and picture of the Queen.

My story was that there a man in the UK and a woman in Australia who have a long distance relationship and talk to each over the phone. They later decide to meet and the woman takes the plane to meet the man and decide to go visit the Queen.

The story didn't need to be too complicated. The assessor's comments were that "The story had an original theme and showed emotion and human relationships."

For the demonstration task, The aim was indeed to physically show how to brush their teeth whilst verbally talking through the steps. So I pointed where the sink was and used my hand to show myself turning the tap on and saying I am holding the brush and giving it a wash where my finger represented the brush.

I then showed the motion of squeezing the toothpaste with my other hand holding the toothbrush underneath. I then opened my mouth and gritted my teeth and made a brushing action against my teeth with my hand running adjacent to it.

For the picture description task. I didn't get a map of the US but rather a beach picture. Anyhow, the assessor said I showed the more human aspects of the picture rather than focusing on the factual elements. They said I showed curiosity of when and where the picture was taken and was able to state that the people were having a fun time.

For the break, i just suggested before commencing the test that I would like a break half way through, When that time came I just asked for a break and agreed a time to come back and left the room. I didn't even know that was assessed or would say that it was "fake".

I found describing the emotions as unusual and when asked to describe happiness, I stated that it was "positive and felt like a warmth radiating from within that put a smile on my face". They also asked to describe anger and sadness.

Of course it wasn't just what was said but they also looked at describing emotions through the use of facial expressions, detailed bodily sensations and outward behaviour.

The final point is that that the assessor is looking at your general presentation across the tasks, e.g eye contact, free flowing speech, picking up on social cues, body language etc.

I had a few other aspects come up during my ADOS 2 test but they weren't mentioned in the post.

I hope this is helpful and I'm happy to expand upon any of the points.

She wanted you to describe how to brush teeth (I was asked to explain it as though to a person who had no idea how to do it), to establish a baseline that you were able to give a description of a mechanical, non-emotional process -- of which brushing teeth is an example.

Once this is established, it's used as a reference for one's ability to give an EMOTIONAL description.

This way, if one CAN'T give an emotional description, the examiner at least knows that the ability to describe isn't impaired; it's the ability to describe EMOTIONS.

Frogs: I thought I did well on this, but when I read the report, it described, in a nutshell, that I fumbled through it.

Puzzle pieces: This doesn't test for autism; I believe it goes towards the IQ computation (since low IQ can cause literal thinking).

You didn't get the monkey story?

What about a picture put in front of you that you had to describe?

As for her repeatedly saying she wasn't good with keeping track of time...ha ha, she was setting you up to test for your ability to detect sarcasm or kidding.

But of an old post but my results came back a few weeks ago and figured i would just update.

Diagnosed with both Autism and ADHD

I hope you thought the diagnosis was worth celebrating. It should explain many things to you.

Welcome to being officially documented as being neurodiverse.

Sorry I haven’t read all the comments, but just wanted to say the ADOS isn’t really recommended for testing adults and a better diagnostic test, particularly for adult women who are good at masking, is the MIDGAS. My child had the ADOS, I had the MIDGAS.

One of the things that really confused me about the ADOS is how it tests for "repetitive behaviors", especially in high-masking people. My results showed that I was above diagnosis threshold for the social communication bit of it, but was sub-threshold for repetitive behaviors.

What I don't understand is how they test for that. Most of my stimming I can control in quiet, controlled environments (I usually finger flick, but I used to play with my hair so much that it was always greasy until I trained myself to stop.) So at that point, what is left to be assessed?

I was diagnosed with Level 1 ASD by a psychologist regardless of the ADOS score, but this has led the psychiatrist who I have been seeing for 10+ years to dismiss the results and say she feels the diagnosis is invalid.