ADOS is an autism diagnosis tool that is a standard around the world. Poland was one of the last European countries where it was not used. With a joint effort, we managed to change that!

After more than three years of work, ADOS-2, a standardized tool for autism diagnosis, has been validated in Poland. The validation process was conducted by the Department of Psychology at the University of Warsaw under the direction of Prof. Ewa Pisula and Dr. Izabela Chojnicka, with the participation of the JiM Foundation and other Polish organizations. In order for the tool to be used in Poland, it was necessary to conduct research on a group of several hundred autistic people of different ages. For this purpose, more than a dozen specialists were trained.

The process was successful. The reliability of the Polish version is very high. Any Polish institution can already purchase the tool from the PTP Psychological Testing Laboratory.

- I am glad to see the completion of the validation process. This is a big step toward raising the quality of diagnosis in Poland. Together with the whole team, we hope that ADOS-2 will be widely used in Poland," says Prof. Ewa Pisula, PhD, from the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Psychology operating at the Faculty of Psychology at the UW.

Autism diagnosis in Poland is made by doctors, psychiatrists, child psychiatrists or neurologists. With ADOS-2, they gain an invaluable tool to assist them in making diagnostic decisions.

- We have been dreaming about ADOS in Poland for a long time. Poland was one of the few white spots on the map of Europe, where autism diagnosis was unsystematized. Therefore, it was difficult to compare it," says Tomasz Michalowicz, president of the JiM Foundation

What exactly is ADOS?

The ADOS diagnosis lasts from 40 to 60 minutes, during which the diagnostician - according to a strictly established scheme - proposes particular activities to the child or talks to the person under examination, noting down observations on the diagnostic sheet.

ADOS-2 is designed to test individuals from the completed 12th month of chronological age up to adults. It allows diagnosing disorders from across the autism spectrum, regardless of the level of functioning or speaking skills of the subject.

JiM Foundation material

Institutions and organizations involved in the project:

• Center for Comprehensive Logopedic Diagnosis and Therapy Adesse
• KAJTEK Medical Center
• SOTIS Autism Therapy Center
• JiM Foundation
• SYNAPSIS Foundation
• Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computer Modeling, Center for Computing at the University of Warsaw 
• National Autism Society, represented by the Center for Autism Diagnosis and Therapy in Lodz Navicula
• Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw