The ADOS Calibrated Severity Score: Relationship to Phenotypic Variables and Stability over Time
Open accessAbstract
Measurement of the severity of autism at a single time point, and over time, is a widespread challenge for researchers. Recently, G otham, P ickles, and L ord published a severity metric (calibrated severity scores; CSS) that takes into account age and language level and is based on raw total scores of the A utism D iagnostic O bservation S chedule (ADOS), a standardized measure commonly used in autism diagnosis. The present study examined psychometric characteristics of the CSS compared to raw scores in an independent sample of 368 children aged 2 to 12 years with autism, pervasive developmental disorder‐not otherwise specified (PDD‐NOS), non‐spectrum delay, or typical development. Reflecting the intended calibration, the CSS were more uniformly distributed within clinical diagnostic category and across ADOS modules than were raw scores. Cross‐sectional analyses examining raw and severity scores and their relationships to participant characteristics revealed that verbal developmental level was a significant predictor of raw score but accounted for significantly less variance in the CSS. Longitudinal analyses indicated overall stability of the CSS over 12 to 24 months in children with autism. Findings from this study support the use of the CSS as a more valid indicator of autism severity than the ADOS raw total score, and extend the literature by examining the stability over 12 to 24 months of the CSS in children with ASD. Autism Res 2012, 5: 267–276. © 2012 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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ADOS-2 standardized scores have little relation to age or IQ.
“These scores have little relation to age or IQ (Kanne et al. 2011, Shumway et al. 2012), and some evidence suggests that they may be useful for identifying different trajectories of ASD severity (Gotham et al. 2012).”
From Recent Advances in Autism Research as Reflected in DSM-5 Criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015) · cites this paper as Shumway et al. 2012
The Results (page not provided) show that cognitive and demographic variables explained less variance in calibrated severity scores (18%) than in ADOS raw scores (56%); no individual variable, including age or developmental-quotient measures, reached the paper’s significance threshold for predicting calibrated scores. This supports a relatively weak relationship, but the study examined ADOS calibrated severity scores, not scores explicitly identified as ADOS-2 scores. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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- Authors
- Shumway, S., Farmer, C., Thurm, A., Joseph, L., Black, D., & Golden, C.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Farmer, Cristan
- Venue
- Autism Research
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-05-24
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 267-276
- ISSN
- 1939-3792 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-3806
- PMC
- PMC3422401
- OpenAlex
- W2123735324
- Cited by
- 117
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Autism Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Mental Health (ZIAMH002868)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Keywords
- autism severity, Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, severity measurement, longitudinal stability, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, children with autism, psychometric properties
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Child, Developmental Disabilities, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Intelligence, Language Development Disorders, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Personality Assessment, Phenotype, Psychometrics, Reference Values, Reproducibility of Results
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