ADOS. is flawed

[Anonymous]

People push this as such an important test on this board. My child has had assessments but not this one.

A friend was having her severly impaired son evaluated with the Ados. He has hearing and language issues from the genetic syndrome he has. She felt it made the test unsuitable for her child, but they insisted. He ended with an autism diagnosis on top of the genetic syndrome.

[Anonymous]

Its pretty common with language and hearing issues. Only a few posters with kids with autism push it or kids who were misdiagnosed with a language disorder who really had autism. The characteristics are similar when kids are young but by 6-7-8 its pretty clear if it is autism, language disorder or both. The only positive of an autism diagnosis is some insurances will pay for speech and other services that they will not under a language diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

There are 4 versions of the ADOS; one is designed for nonverbal or language impaired children to control for this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People push this as such an important test on this board. My child has had assessments but not this one.

A friend was having her severly impaired son evaluated with the Ados. He has hearing and language issues from the genetic syndrome he has. She felt it made the test unsuitable for her child, but they insisted. He ended with an autism diagnosis on top of the genetic syndrome.

Your logic is flawed. You can have a genetic disorder AND autism. The ADOS is rarely given in isolation and part of a battery of tests. Like the tests involved in testing it's evidence based and built from years of research. Nothing is perfect but it is a good tool.

Your friend's experience is called anacdotal. Stop trying to pick a pointless fight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its pretty common with language and hearing issues. Only a few posters with kids with autism push it or kids who were misdiagnosed with a language disorder who really had autism. The characteristics are similar when kids are young but by 6-7-8 its pretty clear if it is autism, language disorder or both. The only positive of an autism diagnosis is some insurances will pay for speech and other services that they will not under a language diagnosis.

Nobody pushes it. It's a normal part of testing b/c kids with autism have many of the same issues as kids with language disorders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People push this as such an important test on this board. My child has had assessments but not this one.

A friend was having her severly impaired son evaluated with the Ados. He has hearing and language issues from the genetic syndrome he has. She felt it made the test unsuitable for her child, but they insisted. He ended with an autism diagnosis on top of the genetic syndrome.

Your logic is flawed. You can have a genetic disorder AND autism. The ADOS is rarely given in isolation and part of a battery of tests. Like the tests involved in testing it's evidence based and built from years of research. Nothing is perfect but it is a good tool.

Your friend's experience is called anacdotal. Stop trying to pick a pointless fight.

Actually there are studies showing the ADOS is skewed against those with language disorders.

[Anonymous]

The ADOS is a checklist. There is no medical testing involved. If you fit the checklist, you are diagnosed with autism in most situations. Its a very black and white test. There is no grey area with it.

Yes, a child can have genetic disorder and autism but a good diagnostician will do genetic testing to rule out before an autism diagnosis. An autism diagnosis is a catch all of we don't know what it is but it meets these traits. It very much can be something very specific that is missed or overlooked. We don't have testing or know what everything is so it is fit under autism. Often, families cannot afford genetic testing so it is not done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People push this as such an important test on this board. My child has had assessments but not this one.

A friend was having her severly impaired son evaluated with the Ados. He has hearing and language issues from the genetic syndrome he has. She felt it made the test unsuitable for her child, but they insisted. He ended with an autism diagnosis on top of the genetic syndrome.

Your logic is flawed. You can have a genetic disorder AND autism. The ADOS is rarely given in isolation and part of a battery of tests. Like the tests involved in testing it's evidence based and built from years of research. Nothing is perfect but it is a good tool.

Your friend's experience is called anacdotal. Stop trying to pick a pointless fight.

It clearly wasn't an issue for your child, but it can be for other kids. Why do you have to be so dismissive of anything that doesn't meet your world view?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People push this as such an important test on this board. My child has had assessments but not this one.

A friend was having her severly impaired son evaluated with the Ados. He has hearing and language issues from the genetic syndrome he has. She felt it made the test unsuitable for her child, but they insisted. He ended with an autism diagnosis on top of the genetic syndrome.

Your logic is flawed. You can have a genetic disorder AND autism. The ADOS is rarely given in isolation and part of a battery of tests. Like the tests involved in testing it's evidence based and built from years of research. Nothing is perfect but it is a good tool.

Your friend's experience is called anacdotal. Stop trying to pick a pointless fight.

Actually there are studies showing the ADOS is skewed against those with language disorders.

Which is exactly what we were told by the person performing it. She said until your child's speech catches up, she will also show up on the spectrum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ADOS is a checklist. There is no medical testing involved. If you fit the checklist, you are diagnosed with autism in most situations. Its a very black and white test. There is no grey area with it.

Yes, a child can have genetic disorder and autism but a good diagnostician will do genetic testing to rule out before an autism diagnosis. An autism diagnosis is a catch all of we don't know what it is but it meets these traits. It very much can be something very specific that is missed or overlooked. We don't have testing or know what everything is so it is fit under autism. Often, families cannot afford genetic testing so it is not done.

No, the ADOS is not a checklist at all. You're confused.

The ADOS administered by a traines professional, together with collaboration with SLP, OT, and a psychologist, is the best we can do for diagnosing autism. It's not perfect and can be administered poorly, but that's true for all of this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ADOS is a checklist. There is no medical testing involved. If you fit the checklist, you are diagnosed with autism in most situations. Its a very black and white test. There is no grey area with it.

Yes, a child can have genetic disorder and autism but a good diagnostician will do genetic testing to rule out before an autism diagnosis. An autism diagnosis is a catch all of we don't know what it is but it meets these traits. It very much can be something very specific that is missed or overlooked. We don't have testing or know what everything is so it is fit under autism. Often, families cannot afford genetic testing so it is not done.

That's not true, it requires a certain clinical presentation. If you don't have that presentation, you don't get the diagnosis. That doesn't mean the diagnosis is correct, but they don't give it out just because they don't know what is going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People push this as such an important test on this board. My child has had assessments but not this one.

A friend was having her severly impaired son evaluated with the Ados. He has hearing and language issues from the genetic syndrome he has. She felt it made the test unsuitable for her child, but they insisted. He ended with an autism diagnosis on top of the genetic syndrome.

Your logic is flawed. You can have a genetic disorder AND autism. The ADOS is rarely given in isolation and part of a battery of tests. Like the tests involved in testing it's evidence based and built from years of research. Nothing is perfect but it is a good tool.

Your friend's experience is called anacdotal. Stop trying to pick a pointless fight.

Actually there are studies showing the ADOS is skewed against those with language disorders.

Which is exactly what we were told by the person performing it. She said until your child's speech catches up, she will also show up on the spectrum.

ADOS requires clinical judgement. If your kid met the ADOS criteria but your clinician believes the diagnosis is not correct, then he or she was correct to tell you that your kid doesn't have autism. But because judgement is part of the deal, some kids eill be misdiagnosed one way or another.

[Anonymous]

I'm in a state now where an autism diagnosis given by certain certified providers means by state law, you can get ABA and insurance has to cover it. So kids with all types of other types disabilities -- including being born typical but getting meningitis at birth, or having seizures, or cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, or other conditions -- and going through the full autism assessment and getting the diagnosis. But if there were not the insurance coverage for the ABA, parents would not be pursing an autism diagnosis. It's a means to an end -- and yes, they have told me this.

[Anonymous]

I don't even understand this debate. Autism isn't a disease or disorder with a specific known cause, like tuberculosis or Down's. It's a word doctors have decided to use to describe people who present with a particular set of characteristics and limitations. If objective observers perceive those characteristics and limitations then you "have" autism, by definition, no matter how or why you got there. And because there are different underlying mechanisms causing different people to fit that profile, there will be some people who meet the autism criteria today and do not a year from now, and others who will meet them forever. The ADOS can't be "flawed" because there isn't some other, more objective or accurate perspective to critique it from. If the medical powers that be want to declare that test the definitive measure of whether you have "autism" or not, then the word just has no meaning apart from the results of that test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't even understand this debate. Autism isn't a disease or disorder with a specific known cause, like tuberculosis or Down's. It's a word doctors have decided to use to describe people who present with a particular set of characteristics and limitations. If objective observers perceive those characteristics and limitations then you "have" autism, by definition, no matter how or why you got there. And because there are different underlying mechanisms causing different people to fit that profile, there will be some people who meet the autism criteria today and do not a year from now, and others who will meet them forever. The ADOS can't be "flawed" because there isn't some other, more objective or accurate perspective to critique it from. If the medical powers that be want to declare that test the definitive measure of whether you have "autism" or not, then the word just has no meaning apart from the results of that test.

By this measure, EVERY low functioning person has autism. It becomes a checklist diagnosis. And that is not a helpful measure. When my son was evaluated under the DSM IV, the language was clear that other more accurate diagnosis that explained the condition needed to be ruled in or out.

Differential diagnosis is the gold standard, not a checklist diagnosis.