What happens in an ADOS Assessment?

This is a question that every parent asks when coming for an Autism Assessment! What happens in the ADOS part of the assessment? Well, we at CareGen are here to give you the inside scoop on what to expect in this assessment. And for those that don’t know what an ADOS is, it’s basically the part where the clinician will need to speak with the individual completing the Autism assessment. In fact, ADOS stands for Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, which mean that there are a series of tasks that we as clinicians will ask you to complete.

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Conversational Interaction

Now one element of the ADOS is for the clinician to get to know you a bit better and this is usually done through chit chat conversation. Within this part of the assessment, we just want to see how your child copes with conversing with a new person in a social environment. Of course, we don’t just look for how well your child can verbally articulate themselves, but we also explore their non-verbal social skills. Clinicians may look out for appropriate eye contact usage and if the individual uses gestures during conversations.

Conversations aren’t always focused solely on your child. The clinician may attempt to engage your child in different activities and weave in conversations whilst focusing on these tasks. This might help your child become more relaxed during interactions rather than being an intense 1-1 conversation.

Exploration of Friendships

This is a very important part of the ADOS, as the clinician will attempt to understand your child’s friendships and how they feel within these environments. The clinician may explore how your child develops friendship or what their definition of a friend is. All of this is to better understand how your child views these relationships and how they navigate themselves within these situations.

Within this area, the clinician may also ask questions about future relationships and why these may be important. This is to explore whether your child has some insight into different social relationships and if they believe that these are important. The clinician may attempt to explore what your child hopes and aspirations are for the future within this element of the ADOS assessment.

Creativity

This is another element of the ADOS that is crucial. Within this part of the ADOS, the clinician may ask your child to complete a series of tasks that explores your child’s creativity. This may be in the form of playing with some toys or developing a story from different items. All of this is to gain a better understanding of your child and the different difficulties they may be exhibiting.

Now it must be noted that the ADOS should never be seen as a stand-alone assessment. Clinicians will take all the information gathered from the ADOS and add this to the information gathered from different areas. These include, the developmental history gathered from parents and information gathered from different environments such as school. Once the clinician has all this information, they will then be able to make an accurate decision of whether your child meets the diagnostic criteria for Autism or not.

Need more support? Why not book into a FREE Clinical Appointment to speak with an Autism Specialist at CareGen? Just click here