ADOS, Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale, the entire scale assesses both social-emotional, limited and repetitive behaviors.
Among the social-emotional scale: communication, assessed in 3 areas: frequency of affecting others’ vocalizations, pointing gestures, and postural gestures, rarely: 3-4 points; often: 0-2 points. In the reciprocal social interaction segment, assessed in terms of eye contact, facial expression, gaze, sharing, display, attention, and expression, rarely: 3-4 points; often: 0-2 points.
In contrast, Repetitive Behavior assesses children’s behavior primarily in terms of vocal or spoken tone, idiosyncratic use of single words or pieces of speech, unusual sensory interest in play material, hand and finger and other complex idiosyncratic habitual movements, and unusual repetitive interests or stereotypic behaviors. The same scale is used: rarely: 3-4 points; often: 0-2 points.
The doctor gives the child a score based on the child’s behavior and evaluates the child for autism based on the score, with the higher the score, the more obvious the evidence for a diagnosis of autism. The higher the score, the clearer the evidence of autism. A score greater than or equal to 16 is a basic diagnosis of autism, and a score less than 10 is a preliminary exclusion. Therefore, the ADOS scale can also be said to be the diagnostic criteria for autism in children.