Examining the relationship between social communication on the ADOS and real-world reciprocal social communication in children with ASD.
ADOS Social scores show you which kids with ASD need peer-talk goals.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched the kids with ASD during free play with peers.
They scored each child on the ADOS Social Communication section.
Then they counted how often the child talked back and forth with peers.
They wanted to see if the test score matched real playground talk.
What they found
Kids who scored low on the ADOS talked less with peers.
Kids who scored high had longer back-and-forth conversations.
The test predicted playground talk as well as a ruler predicts length.
How this fits with other research
Raslear et al. (1992) already showed trained peers can boost talking.
Root et al. (2017) now says the ADOS tells you which kids need that boost.
Together the papers form a plan: test, then set up peer teaching.
Dupuis et al. (2021) did the same kind of check on parent forms.
They found ABAS-II scores line up with Vineland-II scores.
All three studies give you confidence that paper scores match real life.
Why it matters
You can trust the ADOS Social score to pick peer-social goals.
If a child scores low, start peer-incidental teaching right away.
No extra observations needed; the test already showed the need.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: While many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) communicate better with adults than peers, diagnostic measures are given by adult examiners. These measures may not accurately capture the deficits that children with ASD have in communicating with their peers. METHOD: This study examined the ability of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) Social Communication scale to predict reciprocal communication in children with ASD during natural play with peers using the Peer Interaction Paradigm (PIP). Thirty participants with ASD were given the ADOS and then participated in the PIP, after which their behavior was analyzed. RESULTS: Using linear regression, we found that Social Communication was the primary significant predictor for reciprocal communication during play, and that reciprocal communication was not predicted by Verbal IQ or the Restrictive and Repetitive Behaviors scale on the ADOS. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the ADOS measures naturally-occurring social communication patterns with peers and can be used to inform treatment options for children with ASD based on an accurate measure of their level of impairment in social communication.
Research in autism spectrum disorders, 2017 · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2016.10.003