Published on 12, July, 2020
Finally, after 19 months waiting and soul searching, I have my positive diagnosis. I'm just back home after the ADOS which gave the missing piece of the jigsaw to the clinicians. There was more chat & less "tasks" than I expected, but that was all to the good as it helped them to complete the picture.
Thank you so much to all of you for your words of encouragement so far; now we start chapter 2!
I am intrigued by the "tasks" you speak of, in my assessment it was entirely verbal ( although my body language was monitored and commented upon in the report) I am curious about what tasks are set during the diagnosis for some. I did think that it would be a good idea to watch me say, assemble a piece of flatpack furniture or some sort of puzzle,
I have often been told that I do absolutely everything differently from "normal" people ( I can't make sense of many instruction leaflets/manuals but usually manage perfectly well doing it "my way". I believe that there would be a lot to learn about someone from watching how they go about physical tasks and that there could possibly be patterns or common difficulties which would make themselves apparent.very quickly for the trained eye.
I did get my diagnosis and I am autistic but I feel convinced still that a broader, deeper examination involving physical tasks would have revealed a lot more..
I think (from what I've read) that tasks are always part of the ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule), which is what this was. The previous assessment I had was just talking, and, though no-one said, I guess that was an ADI (Autism Diagnostic Interview). Do you know which you had?
The tasks in the ADOS are designed to initiate interaction between the assessor and the person being assessed. The assessor then observes for symptoms and behaviour classic of ASD such as verbal communication skills (reciprocity etx); eye contact; facial expressions; tone variation; fixed behaviour and all the rest.