The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule—Toddler Module:A New Module of a Standardized Diagnostic Measure for AutismSpectrum Disorders

摘要

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS; Lord et al., J Autism Dev Disord, 30(3):205-223,2000) is widely accepted as a "gold standard" diagnosticinstrument, but it is of restricted utility with very youngchildren. The purpose of the current project was to modifythe ADOS for use in children under 30 months of age. Amodified ADOS, the ADOS Toddler Module (or ModuleT), was used in 360 evaluations. Participants included 182children with best estimate diagnoses of ASD, non-spec-trum developmental delay or typical development. A finalset of protocol and algorithm items was selected based ontheir ability to discriminate the diagnostic groups. Thetraditional algorithm "cutoffs" approach yielded high sensitivity and specificity, and a new range of concernapproach was proposed.