Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi I received the report for my sons ASD assessment and I’m struggling to understand the scores given in the assessments carried out is anyone able to point me in the direction of finding out what they mean in severity?
There is a very good article explaining the scores here:
https://embrace-autism.com/a-summary-of-the-autism-tests-and-scores/
The main bit I suspect you are interested in is Autism tests score interpretations
The rest of the article explains the other bits around this to give more context for it.
Are there any areas in particular you want help understanding?
Thank you for the reply, basically what I’ve read online the diagnosis should have a level given, 1 2 or 3. In report he was given a score of 14 in the ADOS-2 7 and 7 in the 2 areas. The ADI-R he scored a.16 b.15 c.7 d.4. The doctors when taking us through the diagnosis said the scores were high but never said anything else and I never thought to ask as I thought it would be in his report.
Hope that all makes sense and again I appreciate the reply.
I was wondering about the levels also and wondered why some people say they were diagnosed with level 1, 2 or 3, but on my report it didn’t have that. From what I read and understand, levels is more of an American diagnostic thing, although some diagnostic practices in the UK might give a level. In the UK the emphasis is more on identifying specific individual support needs rather than categorising by levels. So I wouldn’t worry about the levels.
As for the scores, I’m not entirely sure, and you might want to go back to the people who assessed your son to ask them. Sorry I couldnt share any light on this.
Yeah makes sense to me.
I think people (not on here or anyone that understands it) are tending to refer to level 1 as a level of function rather than need, in the same way they think a spectrum is something you can be on rather than something "is", I hear people say "on the low end of the spectrum" like it's a scale, or "level 1 like Asperger's or high functioning" all terms that can trivialise the trauma people suffer and feel a bit "ableist ".
Similar things annoy me like people saying that they're a bit autistic, imagine saying to a pregnant person that you're feet ache so you're a "bit pregnant" so know how they feel, my wife's had two babies and I think she'd kill me.
A lot of times people mean well and don't understand their language can erode the seriousness of something.
To clarify, the current diagnostic standards do not refer to functioning at all - they refer to relative levels of support needs. Similarly, "high functioning autism" was never an official diagnostic term.
I was assessed and diagnosed using dsm5 and found the report is pretty good in terms of providing explanations for everything.
I also think the level 1 to 3 idea makes sense, rather than giving things another names like "Asperger's"
I don't like the term "functioning level" though , as that infers those at level 1 don't struggle , when in reality we all suffer a lot of distress and anxiety (obviously that's likely to be worse for those at levels 2 and then 3) functioning is more a measure of "how we appear to cope" rather than cope.
I've not seen the older variants of diagnosis criteria and reports but they sound confusing in comparison.
I had a similar experience. There was an appointment where we were supposed to go over the report and discuss the findings, but I left feeling completely alone and confused.
I didn’t feel able to phone and ask for greater clarification. To be honest, it was really triggering going over past life and experiences. I became quite unwell and by the end of it couldn’t understand how they could just leave it so open, without closure, particularly knowing I literally have nobody in my life and talk to people for about 20 hour a YEAR.
Oh well, sorry, I am playing my mini violin here!