Reply to School thinks DS has ASD, dev ped does not agree. Now what?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Get the ADOS done independently. [/b] Rookie mistake not to include it in the first place. The schools are supposed to consider outside reports, but the often don't, so it may not change their stance.  Iep labels are incredibly general.  Focus on the supports your kid needs no matter what label it comes under.

Total blergh. [/quote]

Interestingly, dev ped thinks it's not worth doing—doesn't think it will show much in his case.[/quote]

PP is wrong.  BTDT.  ADOS is not a standard part of a neuropsych. [b] It's a  matter of professional judgement whether to do it, not a rookie mistake. [/b]  You may want one anyway for the school or for your own peace of mind.  If you do want an ADOS, go to David Black, he's a neuropsych specializing in autism.[/quote]

In our situation, the tester decided not to do the ADOS after doing a bunch of other testing and spending hours with my son. He said it wasn't even close -- my DS didn't have autism, and wasn't going to test in the autistic range on the ADOS. [b]He'd done hundreds of ADOS testing through the years.[/b] [/quote]

See the difference? He's done hundreds of the tests and followed the kids through adulthood. He knows the difference. Elementary school teachers do not have this training and should not be using it to diagnose kids. I think they like it because it's a checklist and it looks easy but it's not.[/quote]

I am not sure what you are talking about. The ADOS is not a checklist and it is not administered by teachers. There ARE checklists a teacher might fill out as part of an evaluation, which is totally appropriate. While I understand it might be distressing to have a teacher think they know the diagnosis, try to focus more on what your child needs. [/quote]

Sorry, I think that it was CARS checklists that I used to see teachers following kids around with at my daughter's school. Photocopied autism checklists when honestly I'm pretty sure these teachers had never seen an autistic kid in their life were filling out.

This is CARS-2 but there was a first/original CARS too.
http://www.proedinc.com/customer/productView.aspx?ID=4754

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Just to expand, the actual CARS scoring tests can only be scored by a clinician who has been trained and observes the child in person. The tested is calibrated and each item has definite criteria.

There are CARS checklists for teachers and parents, but those only inform the clinician. The actual test has to be done by someone who is trained. My son had the original CARS twice, once by someone the school brought in to do behind our back, and the second by Dr. Stephen  Camarata of Vanderbilt; the scores were within a half-point of each other in the non-autistic range.  Dr. Camarata didn't  see the first result before he did his CARS assessment; that's how controlled the process is, scoring wise.

https://www.chadis.com/site/content/childhood-autism-rating-scale-second-edition-cars2-hf

The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) helps to identify children (2 years and older with Autism, specifically, distinguishing them from developmentally handicapped children who are not Autistic. In addition, it distinguishes between mid-to-moderate and severe Autism. Its brevity makes it a very useful tool to help recognize and classify Autistic children. The CARS was developed over a 15-year period with more than 1,500 cases, the CARS includes items drawn from five prominent systems for diagnosing Autism, and provides quantifiable ratings based on direct behavior observation. Each item covers a particular characteristic, ability of behavior.[b] Note that this is a strictly a clinician rating tool and is not to be administered directly to parents but can be used in conjunction with the CARS parent questionnaire (QPC) which is an unscored data collection tool.[/b] CHADIS, with guidance from the authors, has created a way for relevant parent data for each CARS item to be viewed above each clinician item. This should greatly facilitate the clinical process when meeting with parent and child. [/quote]

That is all true in theory, but some people photocopy away and try to diagnose themselves or as a school. I doubt that happens outright at the public schools but it may happen privately (private opinions held by teachers that don’t get put in a report but do get included in the attitudes directed towards a child).
If public schools want to diagnose so much why don’t they have their own certified clinicians? I’m sure they don’t have the budget so they should stop pushing unofficial opinions.[/quote]

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