Autism assessment - ADOS Module 4

I don't get the slide  when I click on this link. Is it still working? 

I actually felt that I put on a  good performance in these tests.  Maybe they could tell I was masking?  And certainly I could feel my anxiety levels increasing because I felt under scrutiny. 

with the flying frog story they were looking for inefficiency in social imagination, by you being able to predict the next part of the story by focusing on the frogs. many autistic people who haven't read the book have issues interpreting what direction the story is heading.

With the children's map of the US they were looking at interpretation skills, They assume you've never been to these places which means describing them with ease would be difficult unless you have a special interest in the US , which for autistic individuals is difficult is to describe a place you've never been.

With the random toys and asking you create a social story with them. they are looking for social imagination skills. Many individuals with autism will struggle pretending intimate objects as people and will create a story based on a real life experience. Even adults get thrown by this task.

God! That sounds horrendous and really stressful. So glad I had the DISCO model.

Hiya, I know this is an old comment but just wondered how you coped with your family & friends disagreeing with your diagnosis? 

It never occurred to me that that I might have autism until my work organised a Dyspraxia assessment for me and the assessor recommended that I get assessed for ASC. I'm awaiting my assessment at the moment but my family have been pretty open about the fact that they think it's a waste of time as they don't think I'm autistic.

It frustrates me a lot because although I'm unsure about it, I trust the assessor who raised it, she obviously saw something in me and the more I read about ASC, the more i think there could be something in it. It's just upsetting to be told by others what they think about it because they are not in my head and don't share my experiences and they are basing their opinions on the version of myself that I present to the world but they don't know how hard I work to be that version. 

Just as an afterthought, was the report broken down into different areas?  I'm just wondering what I can expect to see covered in it.  Also I have the feeling that, if they don't adopt the same approach in my area, I will need to go into the last appointment armed with questions.

Wow!  Now that's what I call a decent report!  I can only hope for something half that good.

The draft report was 25 pages long!! But apparently it contains a summary at the beginning which is designed to be shared with my employer etc if I want to. So they don't have to read the whole thing! 

This sounds excellent.  Particularly if you're getting a proper report at the end of it.  I think I'd be pleased to get that too.

I had my feedback meeting today. I am now officially diagnosed :-) 

It was a very good meeting that lasted nearly 2 hours. The psychologist went through all the assessments I had done and described how the team came to their conclusions. She answered all our questions and made some adjustments to the draft report. We talked about what happens now and what support I might need or want. The report will be finished by the end of the week and will contain a list of rwcommended reading. 

I'm very pleased. 

Yes, I'll see what they come back with and probably go in armed with loss of questions.  I wish they could have told me straight away as I've been waiting a very long time, with smaller waits between each appointment.  

I probably don't come across as autistic in the way that most people expect either.  However over the years my "weirdness" has attracted comments.  

When I had my two stage assessment just over a year ago at age 55, they didnt bother with any of the weird frog nonsense because I joked about having read online what the assessment entailed & hoped they weren't going to ask me to do any daft childish things like reading children's picture books.

She said that I wan't really supposed to have looked it up online, but I said that I do that with absolutely everything, especially medication or anything health related. The second stage of the assessment just seemed to consist of chatting for an hour on a variety of subjects, after which she confirmed my diagnosis straight away. My automatic masking & social skills are generally quite good , but obviously not enough to fool a trained professional.

My parents & several of my friends still think it must be some sort of mistake, because my autistic traits don't manifest in the ways most people expect, e.g. I like socialising & meeting new people, much preferring it to being on my own which I find very difficult. I know that the diagnosis is correct though, because it explains so much about why my life has always been so volatile & unpredictable.

I know that Autism in Women is sometimes considered harder to diagnose, because they are often better socially adapted. Despite not being in the least bit feminine (I really do look like Santa), I have been told that I confuse people because I mostly manifest 'Female Autistic Traits', but that didn't stop me from getting a successful diagnosis last year & I hope that you manage to do the same.

Yes, I am hoping that the feedback interview will offer some explanation plus maybe ideas for books and other resources.  Not sure how realistic I'm being though.  Hope you get the result you want, Silverdale.

Let us know how it goes.

Jenny Butterfly said:

I am kind of looking at autism as a kind of unifying theory of why I am the way I am and feel the way I do. Moreover it would explain a lot of experiences and issues within my family.  So, if I'm not diagnosed, I won't know where to turn really

I feel exactly like this. I have my feedback appointment to receive my results this morning and I'm so worried they will say I don't have autism. 

Yes, I do feel worried that I might not meet the criteria for a diagnosis because then I will have drawn a blank.  I am kind of looking at autism as a kind of unifying theory of why I am the way I am and feel the way I do. Moreover it would explain a lot of experiences and issues within my family.  So, if I'm not diagnosed, I won't know where to turn really.  

You're right though, the flying frogs were just one small part of the test so maybe it'll turn out OK and I'll get the result (and the validation) I'm seeking.

Then I might reflect some more on how I survived as an accountant and then a counsellor for so long.

Hi, I had exactly the same tasks for my assessment last November.  I have been a teacher for 20 years and had read the book many times with voices and gestures and am also pretty good at explaining things and talking about pictures, so that was the only part of the assessment where I felt comfortable because I switched into teacher mode.  I didn't realise what they were looking for, in fact I only found out after reading the links in your replies so thanks, that was interesting.  I just did my best story telling and explaining!   I got my diagnosis soon after.  Don't worry, that story must be only a small part of it, if your assessment is like mine you will have already filled out endless questionnaire and had to answer many many personal questions and they will have been watching and listening to everything you said, how you said and what you were doing.  I hope you get the answer you are hoping for because going through the assessment is hard enough without having to worry about it after.

I wish I knew.  Perhaps it varies between areas.  I did have my school reports ready but the appointments went in a different direction.

I am formally diagnosed, but didn't have to do anything like that.  I had to go through an initial assessment then two very long interviews, one including my parents.  They also reviewed all my old school reports and medical records.  Is there any reason why the diagnosis process is so different?

Thank you so much for all of this detail.  It does help to clarify what they were looking for and also makes me wonder whether what I went through was actually level 5.  

I have always been drawn to the lifestyle of a hermit.  Indeed, I often refer to our houses the hermitage.  Those careers forms never revealed anything useful to me, well, other than the massive gulf between me and the world and how hard I would have to work to fit in.  

After years as an accountant I eventually moved towards counselling as an option.  Basically my lifelong interest in psychology combined with some life events that saw me running a helpline from my home gradually pushed me in that direction.  I had thought, when I set up the helpline for others with the same physical illness as me, that I would be giving out information and signposting.  In fact people actually wanted a shoulder to cry on and I realised that I wasn't coping very well with this.  I therefore did a level 1 course in interpersonal skills and was really shocked and surprised.  Why had nobody thought to teach me all of this before?  

The result was that I became outwardly better and better at using the right body language and conveying empathy.  Plus, since the course was so interesting, I kept going on to the next level.  The thought was that a part of my hermitage could become my counselling space.  

What this now means, though, is that the ADOS assessment was being used on someone with 8 years of counselling training, including being regularly observed and evaluated in that role on the quality and genuineness of my every interaction.  So I'm more than a little curious as well as dubious about how they might be able to separate out the various strands.