I suggest that you address your question to Uta Frith at UCL: https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=UFRIT79

Her research is more physiological, but she might be able to point you in the right direction.

Thank you Rhianon, I will follow the link now and check.

Dear Tendai, I would suggest you read about the validity of such tools(they have been validated and used in many countries, there are some officially translated too) and if you believe you need to experience using them, you certainly need to be trained. https://www.pearsonclinical.co.uk/Psychology/ChildMentalHealth/ChildMentalHealth/ADOS-2/ForThisProduct/clinical-workshops.aspx

I would also suggest you approach professional services using these tools (ADOS-2 and ADI-R are the gold standards so any reputable autism assessment service should use it). However, the information the scores give you is not enough for diagnosis or no diagnosis. This means that the best information these tools give you is a mix of quantitative and qualitative information, this is the clinician's opportunity to consider cultural differences and diversity. Yes, someone can score above the cutoff, but this is not always indicative of autism (it could be another neurodevelopmental condition, mental health condition, characteristics due to physical health conditions, cultural diversity, childhood adverse experiences, etc.).

ADI-R comes with DVDs to train (as part of the whole pack) but I would recommend you to approach an autism assessment service and do some shadowing with experienced professionals. Once you have established a point where your scores agree with a panel of experts (or some experienced professionals in an autism assessment service) then you can be more confident that you are using the tools assertively. Mind you, it is always good to have another pair of eyes to bring objectivity and see other contributing factors and context.

Although the tools have been used in many countries, if you use them, you may see that for example, the ADI-R may have some language that even if translated, is not context-suitable for all cultural backgrounds. Additionally, the ADOS does not explore in depth some aspects. Nevertheless, this is why there are also clinical interviews to explore things further, and this is the clinician's opportunity too, to check cultural and language differences and factors that need to be considered further.

Perhaps you will find these authors helpful as a start: Baron-Cohen, Lord, Rutter, Le Couteur, Wolstencroft, Uljarevic, Goldman, Happé, Goode, Heemsbergen, Mawhood, amongst many others, such as Uta Firth taht was already recommended to you.

You may want to check this too:

https://www.bath.ac.uk/research-centres/centre-for-applied-autism-research/

Also, in the UK the Department of Health and Social Care have their reports with all the information about useful tools to diagnose, EBPs and guidelines (Autism Strategy-Think Autism) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/think-autism-strategy-governance-refresh-2018

I hope this helps to give some context and direction.

Best wishes

Dear Nahory

This is an excellent and well-researched answer. I am so grateful. I am visiting the links you mentioned and read the information on there. What is interesting is that my research topics is narrowed to: How effective is ADOS-2 when used on BAME children for autism? Thank you very much for sharing this information ''.

Dear Tendai,

That sounds really interesting. It would be great if you could provide updates as this should contribute to the existing literature when performing autism assessments with children from BAME. Perhaps the following articles are also interesting or helpful when introducing and informing your work:

Travers, J.C., Tincani, M. and Krezmien, M.P., 2013. A Multiyear National Profile of Racial Disparity in Autism Identification. The Journal of Special Education, 47(1), pp. 41-49.

Thomas, P., Zahorodny, W., Peng, B., Kim, S., Jani, N., Halperin, W. and Brimacombe, M., 2011. The association of autism diagnosis with socioeconomic status. Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 16(2), pp. 201-213.

But this is more about identifying autism within different ethnicities and considering other factors such as socioeconomic status, so perhaps be cautious to not deviate from your aim - the ADOS-2.

Best wishes and the best for your project.

Nahory

Thanks Nahory

I am in the process of finding a suitable supervisor with expertise in my research interests. This reference is insightful. Thanks

Tendai