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. 2014 Oct;44(10):2400-12.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-1719-1.

Standardizing ADOS domain scores: separating severity of social affect and restricted and repetitive behaviors

Vanessa Hus  1 , Katherine Gotham, Catherine Lord
Affiliations

Standardizing ADOS domain scores: separating severity of social affect and restricted and repetitive behaviors

Vanessa Hus et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2014 Oct.

Abstract

Standardized Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores provide a measure of autism severity that is less influenced by child characteristics than raw totals (Gotham et al. in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(5), 693-705 2009). However, these scores combine symptoms from the Social Affect (SA) and Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors (RRB) domains. Separate calibrations of each domain would provide a clearer picture of ASD dimensions. The current study separately calibrated raw totals from the ADOS SA and RRB domains. Standardized domain scores were less influenced by child characteristics than raw domain totals, thereby increasing their utility as indicators of Social-Communication and Repetitive Behavior severity. Calibrated domain scores should facilitate efforts to examine trajectories of ASD symptoms and links between neurobiological and behavioral dimensions.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Age by language level calibration cells. Note. Ns denote the number of ASD assessments within each cell
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
a (top, left) Distributions of raw Social Affect domain totals by age/language cells. b (top, right) Distributions of calibrated Social Affect domain scores by age/language cells. c (bottom, left) Distributions of raw Restricted and Repetitive Behavior domain totals by age/language cells. d (bottom, right) Distributions of calibrated Restricted and Repetitive Behavior domain scores by age/language cells
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
a (left) Distributions of calibrated Social Affect domain scores by best estimate clinical diagnosis. b (right) Distributions of calibrated Restricted and Repetitive Behavior domain scores by best estimate clinical diagnosis
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Case summaries of longitudinal domain severity scores
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