Parent information and direct observation in the diagnosis of pervasive and specific developmental disorders.
Run ADI-R plus ADOS together to avoid mistaking severe language delay for autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the kids two gold-standard autism tests.
Parents answered the ADI-R interview.
Clinicians ran the ADOS-G play session.
They checked if the pair could tell autism from severe language delay.
What they found
Ten of eleven children with autism were correctly flagged.
Only one child with pure language disorder was wrongly labeled autistic.
Using both tools together gave the cleanest split.
How this fits with other research
Foley-Nicpon et al. (2017) repeated the idea in bright kids.
They found ADOS alone would drop 62 % of high-IQ ASD cases.
Adding the ADI-R kept every diagnosis, a perfect match to Michele’s message.
Zander et al. (2015) pushed the combo younger.
In Swedish toddlers the pair again raised specificity to 92 %.
Scahill et al. (2015) pooled expert votes and listed both tools as trial-ready endpoints, backing the same duo.
Why it matters
If you screen with only the ADOS you risk missing kids who talk well or look quiet.
Run the ADI-R first to catch parent-reported history, then confirm with ADOS play.
This one-two punch saves time later and keeps your caseload accurate.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism and children with a severe specific receptive language disorder show clear deficits in communicative language skills and social relationships. In this study the usefulness of a standardized parent interview (ADI-R) and a standardized observation schedule (ADOS-G) for the differential diagnosis of these two groups was assessed. Eleven children with early infantile autism and 16 children with a specific receptive language disorder participated. The parent interview was conducted with all parents and the observation schedule was administered to all children. Ten out of 11 children with autism were correctly classified as having autism on the ADI-R and the ADOS-G. One child with a receptive language disorder was falsely classified as having autism on the ADI-R, and none on the ADOS-G. Parent interview provides extensive information on the developmental course of the child. Direct observation gives an overview of actual relevant behavioural problems. The two instruments are complementary in the diagnosis of developmental disorders.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2002 · doi:10.1177/1362361302006002003