What was your experience with the ADOS?

[yogabanana]

Just finished my formal assessment and I am very interested to hear your experience taking the ADOS. Curious to hear if you made up a story with objects, do you remember the story? Any other things? I find it fascinating that they can use storytelling for diagnosis.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I flat out failed that portion of the testing. Like, I literally sat there and couldn't do it, period. My therapist brought out a toy car, a feather, a crayon, a button, and then proceeded to make up a story out of thin air, gave each object a persona, this did that, and then this other thing did something else. I just sat there, like "What is going on here?". My mind did NOT work like that at all. Then, she said, "Now you try." I just got all hot around the collar, embarrassed and stunned that my brain waves just went flat. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to do that. I would have no idea how to even start." Then, she read some ridiculous story about flying frogs and she wanted to know how the people and the other animals in the story felt about all that. Again, I just looked at her stone-faced as if she had completely lost her mind. "Sorry, what?"

IQ=0 on those exercises. However, I must have scored in some other areas, as I did score some points.

Obviously, the ADOS was one of many different tests performed that day.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I could not complete that as for me such objects do not possess motivation.

 

[Tom]

I haven't sought a diagnosis, but would have liked that part of the test. I would have said the button was from a man who when he was young and reckless was driving a car like the toy one, but too fast. he eventually hit and killed a bird in the road and stopping felt very sorry and guilty and moving it aside out of the road, kept a feather to remind him to be more careful. He kept the feather for many years and told his wife that he wanted it buried with him. When one day the time came the wife remembered about the feather and couldn't find it no matter how hard she searched. At the wake she told the story to relatives and a granddaughter brought out a blue crayon to place in the casket in liue of the feather.

 

[Progster]

My assessment didn't involve such a test, but I would have found such an exercise hard. I don't have that much of an imagination.

 

[Dagan]

Yes, so strange. I was quite older when given a variation of this test. It came across like she was reading me something I would expect to be in an Onion article or something stupid but true from TMZ. I can and have come up with stories and have written them, even tried self publishing once, but I can't just craft something and spit it out thinking that I am entertaining someone. I have to edit it about a hundred times, reading it over and over and fixing it. I honestly thought the test was trying to find out if I am really good at lying to people right off the top of my head. Later on, I recall thinking that politicians should be given this test.

 

[yogabanana]

I haven't sought a diagnosis, but would have liked that part of the test. I would have said the button was from a man who when he was young and reckless was driving a car like the toy one, but too fast. he eventually hit and killed a bird in the road and stopping felt very sorry and guilty and moving it aside out of the road, kept a feather to remind him to be more careful. He kept the feather for many years and told his wife that he wanted it buried with him. When one day the time came the wife remembered about the feather and couldn't find it no matter how hard she searched. At the wake she told the story to relatives and a granddaughter brought out a blue crayon to place in the casket in liue of the feather.

Lovely.
I picked two yellow toy cars, a shoestring, a sponge and a wooden cube. I used the shoestring as a tightrope. The cars were yellow stairs on either side of it. The sponge was the cushion in case my cube person fell. But the plot was really stupid lol. "Here's Bob. He's walking on this tightrope for his job at the circus. Ok he's done now!"

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

There is no way I could do anything like that. That’s why I gave Tom a first place ribbon. Magic!

 

[yogabanana]

Well I went to school for creative writing.
I don't think these tests are made for people like me. I think I probably used the items more concretely than they would be used by a neurotypical person. It would not occur to me to say I can't do it because I am being tested on doing a certain action. So I don't have the option to not do it.

Give me enough time and I'll make a story. I use storytelling with my son when I'm tired of all the ways he wants me to entertain him.

I also had to put together a puzzle. She didn't give me enough pieces but set the rest on the other side of the table. I asked was there not an image I was supposed to copy to put the pieces together. There wasn't so I said I'll just make something pretty then. I grabbed the other pieces, counted the spaces and divided the colors up. She said I did good, and apparently people don't think to arrange them like I did. Cool I guess?

I feel like I'm not neurotypical enough to fit in with neurotypical people but I'm also not autistic enough to fit in with other autistics. I did ask her about her pregnancy. But because I know I'm supposed to. Not because I actually care. I know most people are excited to be pregnant and want to talk about it.

 

[autism-and-autotune]

Just finished my formal assessment and I am very interested to hear your experience taking the ADOS. Curious to hear if you made up a story with objects, do you remember the story? Any other things? I find it fascinating that they can use storytelling for diagnosis.

My formal assessment was a mesh of questions regarding autism, as that was specifically my purpose of the visit to a psychologist, but it was also a general questionnaire which covered topics like childhood trauma, BPD, depression, anxiety, and many other things.

The assessment took four hours, and part of it was me filling out bubbles of questions as well as written/spoken response, on which I'd elaborate if needed. Additionally there were previous forms which I'd filled out (I'd arrived to this diagnosis place very prepared because I was certain that I had autism, and wanted to be diagnosed not to be proven right only, but...just general validation because what if I didn't have autism? This was my fear).

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I haven't sought a diagnosis, but would have liked that part of the test. I would have said the button was from a man who when he was young and reckless was driving a car like the toy one, but too fast. he eventually hit and killed a bird in the road and stopping felt very sorry and guilty and moving it aside out of the road, kept a feather to remind him to be more careful. He kept the feather for many years and told his wife that he wanted it buried with him. When one day the time came the wife remembered about the feather and couldn't find it no matter how hard she searched. At the wake she told the story to relatives and a granddaughter brought out a blue crayon to place in the casket in liue of the feather.

That would have been somewhat easier if these objects were "symbols" like you've described. However, in the case of the ADOS-2, the objects represented actual characters, themselves. The car was a person, the feather was another person, etc. and then you had to sit there, on-the-spot, and create some sort of interpersonal story using these objects. In the moment, my mind was still focused upon the fact that these were random objects on a table in front of me, and not that these were people. The whole exercise was totally illogical and, in-the-moment, was unable to simply come up with some story about people. Now, had the objects been toy people/dolls, it may have been easier perhaps.

As I am writing this, I am thinking that the ADOS-2, in part, is assessing how a person relates to his/her world from an interpersonal/social perspective.

 

[yogabanana]

My formal assessment was a mesh of questions regarding autism, as that was specifically my purpose of the visit to a psychologist, but it was also a general questionnaire which covered topics like childhood trauma, BPD, depression, anxiety, and many other things.

The assessment took four hours, and part of it was me filling out bubbles of questions as well as written/spoken response, on which I'd elaborate if needed. Additionally there were previous forms which I'd filled out (I'd arrived to this diagnosis place very prepared because I was certain that I had autism, and wanted to be diagnosed not to be proven right only, but...just general validation because what if I didn't have autism? This was my fear).

That is my fear as well. What if this isn't the reason I can't keep up with other mothers/wives/employees.

 

[Luca]

Super weird that I had a lot of trouble with this part of the assessment if I recall (granted, I was a very young child) since I am actually a super creative type, and an artist. Creating art is actually when I am at some of my happiest and least stressed.
But, storytelling isn't my strongest suit, and I prefer nonfiction books and TV over fiction. I was never into fantasy or sci-fi. So maybe I don't have much of a working imagination.

There was a similar assessment category on a neuropsych test when I was being evaluated for PTSD as a young adult. I had to look at a picture and write a story that went along with it. It felt very forced.
I looked at the picture and was like "Well, this isn't what I want to write about, I have no connection to this picture and it doesn't spark anything in me" so my mind drew a huge blank.

And people still doubt that I'm autistic??? Lol

 

[Outdated]

I had to look up what ADOS was. Everyone's experiences sound so different to mine. I didn't do any online questionaires or any written assignments. 3 ladies spent 3 hours chatting to me and showing me short video clips, then they pronounced I was ASD2 and tried to get me to accept visits from social workers.

I didn't like being mothered when I was a kid, there's no way I'll put up with it at my age.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

I had to look up what ADOS was. Everyone's experiences sound so different to mine. I didn't do any online questionaires or any written assignments. 3 ladies spent 3 hours chatting to me and showing me short video clips, then they pronounced I was ASD2 and tried to get me to accept visits from social workers.

I didn't like being mothered when I was a kid, there's no way I'll put up with it at my age.

I had to look it up too. I did have a questionnaire, but otherwise I had three sessions talking about myself. Actually, it was two, then one session to discuss the results.

 

[Stuttermabolur]

I've not been officially diagnosed and also never heard of ADOS, but from how it is described, I actually have done a similar exercise.

I took an elective course on communication in high school/college which was easily my favourite in that school. It was very useful and I learned a lot about how to be persuasive and confident in how I present myself. It also had relatively few students which made for a nice change of pace. For one of the exercises, the teacher asked us all to bring 10 personal items from our homes. Once there, I thought she wanted us to talk about how they are important to us, but no. She told us to hand them over to the person to the left, and then we had 15 minutes or so to create a story using all the items from the person next to us.

I think I did pretty well, but like @yogabanana, I like reading fiction and have dabbled in writing, so it comes somewhat naturally for me. I also used to make up bedtime stories for my ex, and my primary school stories were way more creative and interesting than the ones from other students (I'm not saying this to brag, they just were). I didn't make all the items a "character" like how @Neonatal RRT explained the test, and I think I would have done worse in that case. There wasn't any dialogue in the story, and it was definitely more plot than character focused.

 

[Forest Cat]

I had to google ADOS and I did this:

Module 4 (adolescents and adults with fluent speech)
This module consists of ten- fifteen activities (those with * are optional)

1. Construction task *
2. Telling a story from a book
3. Description of picture *
4. Conversation and reporting
5. Current work or school *
6. Social difficulties and annoyance
7. Emotions
8. Demonstration task
9. Cartoons *
10. Break
11. Daily living *
12. Friends, relationships and marriage
13. Loneliness
14. Plans and hopes
15. Creating a story

But I didn't create a story for some reason. I did answer a lot of hypothetical questions and that was like a story, but I didn't make a story. The whole thing was a little exhausting. And I misunderstood some of it so I messed it up a little.

 

[VictorR]

I had ADOS-2 Module 4, but "telling a story from a book" and "creating a story" were definitely not part of mine. Or at least I don't recall them.

 

[Progster]

I didn't have the ADOS, but I think I'd really struggle with the story-telling and pretending that inanimate objects are people. I find anthropomorphised objects in TV adverts silly and absurd. Like a credit card that talks with arms and legs coming out of it, "Your flexible friend." Or animals that walk upright when they shouldn't, aren't anatomically correct and wear clothes.