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Has anyone sat Ados Module 4

Daniel Dutton

Active Member
I had an ADOS test the friday just gone. Module 4 for adult's which is used to express if I have autism or not. I did no research before I went in because I wanted to act as normal as possible, well for me anyway. At the end of it they gave me a verbal 'yes you have ASD' and I scored 21 out of a maximum of 22. I was in denial. To get a score like that it must have been blatantly obvious to them..surely. I was asked to read from a book describing what was happening, pretend to brush my teeth, construct a puzzle out of foam pieces, stare at a wheres wally style picture and describe what the people in it were doing, oh and she questioned if I had been on a holiday. She also whipped out a set of ten cards which told a sequential story. She went through the story with me, hid the cards then asked me to recite it. I was also asked to make up a story using a number of objects which I struggled to do. Just wondered if anyone could possibly shed some light on what they were about and how they would have been assessed. Thanks.
 
Hi, I have not had an assessment yet but I will be, I am undecided as to whether I have it or not. I guess it is not just what you do but other things like your level of eye contact and how you interact. Just curious what did you do for brush your teeth? And the objects they gave you how many? How did you feel about the assessment and the examiner? Did they give you much time to think about your answers?
 
Hi, I have not had an assessment yet but I will be, I am undecided as to whether I have it or not. I guess it is not just what you do but other things like your level of eye contact and how you interact. Just curious what did you do for brush your teeth? And the objects they gave you how many? How did you feel about the assessment and the examiner? Did they give you much time to think about your answers?

Hi Sparky. Thanks for replying. For the brush the teeth thing she pointed to an empty desk in various places and went that's the hot water tap, that's the cold. There's the sink and there is your toothbrush and toothpaste. Now act out brushing your teeth, so I had to pretend to interact with the imaginary items. She asked me to do it standing up if I recall. There were about ten objects. She took five and made a story then asked me to take five and do the same. I struggled with that.

There was random small talk, about if I had been on holiday if I remember right. I answered 'yes' and she asked me where I had been and then told me she had recently been on holiday. I replied 'ok', and that was that. Sometimes they allowed me good time to answer things and other times they pushed me a little. I think my eye contact did go in a big way. It always does either when I am stressed or around more than one person. I felt quite relaxed around the examiners to be honest. They were very nice. I really did think I was going to fail the test though. Still in denial but then why would they want to push a label like that on me for no reason. I keep getting told it's really hard to get an Aspergers diagnosis.
 
Hi, is it really so no chance of you getting a diagnosis then if you do not have it? So when they asked you questions like 'Have you been on holiday?' You replied 'Yes', and that was it, I would of said 'No, not recently, but last year I went to the Shetlands, have you been on holiday?' So you did not asked her a question or give more information. I wonder if it is the tasks itself of maybe they are checking how willing you are to engage. What objects did she give you and what did you say to the where's wally picture? I thought about that and then maybe they want to see how you interpret people's actions maybe?
 
Hi, is it really so no chance of you getting a diagnosis then if you do not have it? So when they asked you questions like 'Have you been on holiday?' You replied 'Yes', and that was it, I would of said 'No, not recently, but last year I went to the Shetlands, have you been on holiday?' So you did not asked her a question or give more information. I wonder if it is the tasks itself of maybe they are checking how willing you are to engage. What objects did she give you and what did you say to the where's wally picture? I thought about that and then maybe they want to see how you interpret people's actions maybe?

Let me put it this way. I went in thinking noooo I don't have ASD I will fly through and she will tell me so. With the score I got I can only assume it must be blatantly obvious to everyone except me.

No I never asked her any questions about the holiday. Objects given were just random things. A toy car. A Square block. A red feather, a red plastic ball, a piece of string, a mini pair of spectacles. Can't remember the rest.
 
How did you end up taking the test then? Did you not think you had it? Maybe part of the test was whether you asked her questions to test your social skills. I am trying to think what I would do, confusing with so many objects, couldn't you pretend the toy car was the real thing? I would ask them that, I mean what use is a toy car?
 
The props and activities are not the test itself. They only provide the opportunity to observe you. For example, a question 'like have you had a holiday?' doesn't have a right and wrong answer. But an aspie is much more likely to either be extremely concise or excessively verbose (in the eyes of an NT). On the surface it's a yes/no question. While an aspie might treat it as such an NT won't.

The following is from About the ADOS Exam

...the focus of the ADOS is on observation of social behavior and communication... The activities serve to structure the interaction; they are not ends in themselves. The object is not to test specific cognitive abilities or other skills in the activities, but to have tasks that are sufficiently intriguing that the child or adult being assessed will want to participate.
 
The cards and story thing were to test your verbal cognitive skills. I had that same part in my assessment last month. I failed that part bad.
 
How did you end up taking the test then? Did you not think you had it? Maybe part of the test was whether you asked her questions to test your social skills. I am trying to think what I would do, confusing with so many objects, couldn't you pretend the toy car was the real thing? I would ask them that, I mean what use is a toy car?
I'v gone through office environment after office environment really struggling around people. It's been that way also in school since I was 13. I'v always been very detached. I reached 15 years of working and had the same problems in an open plan office and I had enough. I saved up as much money as I could then quit the job then went to get help. I thought it was maybe social anxiety or I was just low on confidence. At no point did ASD ever cross my mind. I spoke to a health worker on the phone and described my symptoms and he said I have a son with Aspergers it sounds very much to me like it might be that. Then he in turn referred me to an ASD specialist who straight of the bat went yes you've got it. I said I wouldn't believe it though until I'd had the ADOS. I'v been registered with an employment agency that specialise in placing programmers with ASD because of attention to detail and pattern recognition. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the employers this time are more understanding and I can cope. I'v an interview with a firm next Tuesday.
 
The cards and story thing were to test your verbal cognitive skills. I had that same part in my assessment last month. I failed that part bad.
Hiya. Thanks for the reply. How did you fail it bad though? Do you know? It was never explained to me how they scored it they just gave me the total?
 
I knew because I was asked to recall all I could after hearing the stories. I could not remember anything but a couple words from the first one and a very little bit from the second one. My final results showed my verbal cognitive abilities were far below my intelligence
 
Before that test I did not know that I process information differently from most. I understood everyone thought visually like I did. Maybe that's why people look at me like I have ten heads when given a problem, (like lets say to open something that's stuck) I zone out and can visually see the issue and process all manner of items I have access to, to fix the problem.
 
I knew because I was asked to recall all I could after hearing the stories. I could not remember anything but a couple words from the first one and a very little bit from the second one. My final results showed my verbal cognitive abilities were far below my intelligence
I thought I recited the story from the cards perfectly, so I'm still sat here scratching my head as to why I scored 21 out of 22.
 
But HOW did you recite it? It's probably NOT your memory being tested here - though short term memory does tend to be a weak point. How was your eye contact? How was your intonation and cadence? Did you do it word for word, or did you paraphrase? There are many things they would have been looking at other than your ability to recite. I think you will also find it is very subjective. It's the observer's impressions of you, not a tick the boxes test.
 
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I agree with zurb, it sounds very logical. I was unable to even remember the story, so I assumed I failed.

Just remember, your high functioning. You did not know you had autism. Now one in you life more then likely is trained to spot autism. Most adults with autism have difficulties and have not idea why. They don't think something is wrong, rather thinking they just can't get it right. Into adulthood we compensate the best we can. We don't know we think or see the world different from anyone else. So it's not a wonder that something that is obvious to a professional is not to us.
 
But HOW did you recite it? It's probably NOT your memory being tested here - though short term memory does tend to be a weak point. How was your eye contact? How was your intonation and cadence? Did you do it word for word, or did you paraphrase? There are many things they would have been looking at other than your ability to recite. I think you will also find it is very subjective. It's the observer's impressions of you, not a tick the boxes test.
Yeah I see the point you are making. My memory I would say is excellent. I can read large bodies of text and memorise it word for word. I think I am still in denial. I keep telling myself, to get that score it must be blatantly obvious. My eye contact was probably poor. It always goes in stressful situations and as the people count around me increases. I suppose when it comes down to it, why on earth would they want to just give me a label for no apparent reason. It's not like they can benefit from it.
 
I agree with zurb, it sounds very logical. I was unable to even remember the story, so I assumed I failed.

Just remember, your high functioning. You did not know you had autism. Now one in you life more then likely is trained to spot autism. Most adults with autism have difficulties and have not idea why. They don't think something is wrong, rather thinking they just can't get it right. Into adulthood we compensate the best we can. We don't know we think or see the world different from anyone else. So it's not a wonder that something that is obvious to a professional is not to us.
I know. I see what you are saying. As I said to zurb, I think I am going through a denial phase at the moment. If I knew exactly how the test was scored then I could at least sit down and try and fathom what I failed and what I passed. Oh well.
 
A toy car. A Square block. A red feather, a red plastic ball, a piece of string, a mini pair of spectacles.

I might well fail due to being excessively pedantic. I would probably say that isn't a square block. A square is a 2-D geometric figure in a plane. That's a cube. I know to many people the description would close enough but the inaccuracy would bug me and I would have to correct them.

It's like Magritte's picture of a pipe that shows a pipe and the words this is not a pipe because its actually a 2-D representation of a pipe.

If some one showed me a toy car and said "It's a car , I would have to say "No it isn't" It is an abstracted representation of a car.

I know this probably drives people scatty but it drives me scatty if I don't correct them !

Any one else get like this.
 
Good point zurb, I never really considered what pass or fail meant ! If fail meant I was aspie and pass means I would be an NT,
I would be glad to fail ! :D
 

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