Racial-Ethnic Comparisons of ADOS-2 Algorithms for Young Verbal Children.
ADOS-2 total scores are racially fair for preschoolers, so you can keep your current cutoffs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team checked if the ADOS-2 gives the same scores to Black, Hispanic, and White preschoolers. They looked at kids aged three to five who could talk in phrases.
They ran two tests. One hunted for single items that favored one race. The other asked if the total score stayed fair across groups.
What they found
A few single items leaned one way, but the total score stayed the same for all groups. In plain words, the test is fair at the scale level.
Parents and clinicians can trust the final score no matter the child's race or ethnicity.
How this fits with other research
Kim et al. (2012) updated the ADI-R for the same age band. Their work and this study both show toddler-preschool tools need fine-tuning to stay accurate.
Angelina et al. (2025) found masks during ADOS-2 barely change scores. Together, these studies say small changes—masks or race—do not wreck the tool's validity.
Papadopoulos et al. (2013) showed two IQ tests can give very different numbers for the same child. The new ADOS-2 data calm that worry for autism scores across races.
Why it matters
You can keep using the ADOS-2 with confidence for any three- to five-year-old who talks in phrases. No race-adjusted cutoffs are needed. If a family worries the test might be biased, show them these data. Keep watching for future tweaks, but for now, your usual score is fair.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Keep your current ADOS-2 cutoffs—no race-based adjustments needed.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The current study reports comparative analyses of the ADOS-2 Module 1 (Some Words) (n = 918) and Module 2 (Phrase Speech) (n = 881) algorithmic items between Black, Hispanic, and White children aged 3-5 on data from the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED). Significant Differential Item Functioning (DIF) was identified on ADOS-2 Social Affect and Restrictive Repetitive Behavior (RRB) items from both modules, but differential test functioning (DTF) was close to zero for each subscale (range = -0.07 to 0.08). No discernible patterns were identified when comparing these results with other published studies conducted with older populations. Item level scoring differences may reflect unique study sample variance, and existing data suggests DIF is unlikely to impact scale level ADOS-2 interpretations for clinicians assessing preschool age children from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2026 · doi:10.1002/aur.70203