Pre-linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule adapted for older individuals with severe to profound mental retardation: a pilot study

Sibel Kazak Berument; Elizabeth Starr; Andrew Pickles; Megan Tomlins; Katerina Papanikolauou; Catherine Lord; Michael Rutter

doi:10.1007/s10803-005-0027-4

Pre-linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule adapted for older individuals with severe to profound mental retardation: a pilot study

J Autism Dev Disord. 2005 Dec;35(6):821-9. doi: 10.1007/s10803-005-0027-4.

Authors

Sibel Kazak Berument¹, Elizabeth Starr, Andrew Pickles, Megan Tomlins, Katerina Papanikolauou, Catherine Lord, Michael Rutter

Affiliation

¹ Department of Psychology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. sibel@metu.edu.tr

PMID: 16283083
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-005-0027-4

Abstract

The Autism Diagnostic Observational Schedule (ADOS) is a semi-structured observational scale developed to assess social interaction, communication and play in individuals who are suspected to have autism. Since the ADOS is not suitable to be used with severely or profoundly mentally retarded adolescents and adults with very limited language skills, materials and some of the tasks of the PL-ADOS and the original ADOS (the former versions of the current ADOS) were adapted. Results indicated that almost all of the overall ratings showed good reliability and discriminative diagnostic validity. Furthermore, the combination of codings into an overall algorithm score on social/communicative behavior resulted in a sensitivity of .82 and a specificity of .85 when using a cut-off score of 15.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Autistic Disorder / diagnosis*
Autistic Disorder / epidemiology*
Child
Child, Preschool
Down Syndrome / diagnosis*
Down Syndrome / epidemiology*
Humans
Intellectual Disability / epidemiology*
Observer Variation
Pilot Projects
Severity of Illness Index
Surveys and Questionnaires*
Verbal Behavior*