LIH Olivia’s Place Teams Training on Autism Assessment “Gold Standard”

Beth Rutkowski, PsyD, Clinical Psychologist & Psychology Team Lead, Shanghai

LIH Olivia’s Place has always worked to meet the needs of the families they serve. Recently, questions about autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been among the most common. LIH Olivia’s Place has a strong team of clinicians with training and experience administering a range of assessment measures designed to diagnose ASD. This includes the tool widely considered the “gold standard” of autism diagnosis- the ADOS-2. LIH Olivia’s Place has consistently employed specialists trained in the ADOS-2 over the last six years. However, as demand increases for high quality autism assessment throughout China, LIH Olivia’s Place has responded by increasing the number of trained professionals and the depth of our training program, in turn increasing our ca-pacity to serve families by obtaining clinical information using a widely validated tool.

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2), is a partially structured observation of children and adults referred for ASD concerns. These observations are “standardized,” or held to a universal quality established through an extensive range of testing and confirmation.

The ADOS-2 has five modules, only one of which is administered at a given time. The determination of which module is administered is based on two factors- the individual’s verbal level and his or her age. Verbal ability can range from no words to fluent speech. The test can be administered to children as young as 12 months through adulthood. Each ADOS-2 module consists of talking or play activities using the same standardized materials every time it is administered. The algorithms used to diagnose autism spectrum disorders through the ADOS-2 have been consistently demonstrated to accurately identify autism spectrum disorders in toddlers, children, teens, and adults.

The ADOS-2 is widely used around the world and is the best fit for our team as we provide diagnostic assessment for children from China as well as expatriate children. Therefore, both Chinese and English speaking clinicians are presently being trained to administer the ADOS-2. LIH Olivia’s Place is utilizing the training system established by WPS, the publisher who has developed and distributes the ADOS system. The training is extensive and includes studying the administration of the modules, practice with the tool, and experience with scoring video examples of cases.

In December 2016, training on the ADOS-2 began with our Shanghai team. It will continue in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Kunming during early 2017. As individual clinicians complete the training, they will administer the assessments and work together to ensure the most accurate and comprehensive diagnoses possible. The ADOS-2 will be utilized alongside a variety of other tools from an inter-disciplinary team including psychologists, behavioral specialists, speech therapists, occupa-tional therapists, and physical therapists. With our increasing levels of skill and expertise, our teams continue to set a high standard for diagnosis and treatment of developmental disorders.

Dr. Beth Rutkowski is the Lead Psychologist at LIH Olivia’s Place Shanghai. You are welcome to contact her directly at ber@lih-oliviasplace.com or the Shanghai LIH Olivia’s Place team at (8621) 5404-0058.