I need help understanding

[Mila]

Overall, the child’s performance on the ADOS met classification cutoffs for an autism spectrum disorder due to difficulties in communication and reduced social interaction. The child’s score of 10 on the ADOS-2 fell into the Moderaterange on the autism spectrum.
This is the conclusion of my son's test but, to be honest is as if was written in a different language the Dr. Was supposed to sent me an email with the diagnostic since last time we saw him this results were not available because the internet was down so, that being said would some body please explain me what cutoffs of an autism spectrum disorder mean and the score of 10 on the ADOS-2 .

 

[SyAn]

Hi Mila, sorry to hear that an email is all you have so far regarding your son's diagnosis. Hopefully you will get a full report and an appointment with your Doctor soon so he/she can explain and answer some of your questions.

ADOS allocates points for observed behaviours. My understanding is that classification cutoffs for ADOS simply mean that children who score at or above given numbers are more likely to be on the Autistic Spectrum than those who score below. However, ADOS is only one of a number of tests that should be done, as external circumstances may influence a child's behaviour significantly.

Coming to this Forum is definitely a good start as you will find not only a lot of information here but also very supportive people

 

[Ylva]

Jess at diaryofamom.com concludes that "developmental disorder" means literally "different order of development". So it makes sense for your child to score higher at some things and lower at other things – his brain is still catching up in some areas what it gained a headstart at in other areas.

I know nothing of standardised development tests, though.

 

[Ereth]

From a reply to a post on a parenting website (it's four years old, but I hope it might still be useful):

Can someone explain ADOS scores? - BabyCenter

The ADOS is only designed to determine whether children may have an ASD. The scores do not represent severity. If a child has higher scores, it simply means they showed more symptoms at the time of testing. However, it is very clear if you read the ADOS documentation that the scores themselves are not a measure of severity. There are no cutoffs for mild, moderate, or severe; only for PDD-NOS versus autism. In fact, the new toddler version of the ADOS only classifies as ASD or no ASD because the exact classification is so unstable in toddlers (if tested well, the ASD versus no ASD classification is stable at such a young age but the autism versus PDD-NOS classification is not).

There is a way of using ADOS scores to generate severity scores that is used in research (I can dig up a link to the article), but really the scores aren't intended to be used that way clinically. The mild, moderate, severe diagnosis is based on other testing and clinical judgment. For example, the Gillam Autism Rating Scale estimates symptom severity.

For what it's worth, my DS had a total score of 26 when tested at 25 months - so Kai's score is very low comparatively! I don't think that score was accurate (long story), but the scores can vary a lot under different testing conditions and from day to day - so that's why it's not used to classify severity. Other factors (like day to day functioning) need to be taken into account.

Realize also that a language delay tends to raise scores on many of these tests as well. Even on the non-verbal module of the ADOS (I think you had module 1), there is a tendency for language-delayed children to get higher scores.

Basically, they say that the scores on individual items may vary (e.g., a child may miss something one day that they could get another day - like Kai not responding to bubbles), but the overall classification is stable if the test is done well. A severity estimate is not likely to be stable, so the test is not used to give a severity estimate at this point.