title: Use of Gilliam Asperger's disorder scale in differentiating high and low functioning autism and ADHD.
abstract: Little is known about the validity of Gilliam Asperger's Disorder Scale (GADS), although it is widely used. This study of 199 children with high functioning autism or Asperger's disorder, 195 with low functioning autism, and 83 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) showed high classification accuracy (autism vs. ADHD) for clinicians' GADS Quotients (92%), and somewhat lower accuracy (77%) for parents' Quotients. Both children with high and low functioning autism had clinicians' Quotients (M=99 and 101, respectively) similar to the Asperger's Disorder mean of 100 for the GADS normative sample. Children with high functioning autism scored significantly higher on the cognitive patterns subscale than children with low functioning autism, and the latter had higher scores on the remaining subscales: social interaction, restricted patterns of behavior, and pragmatic skills. Using the clinicians' Quotient and Cognitive Patterns score, 70% of children were correctly identified as having high or low functioning autism or ADHD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, USA. smayes@psu.edu
authors.forename: Susan Dickerson
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Mayes
authors.forename: Susan L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Calhoun
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: Jill D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Morrow
authors.forename: Kirsten K L
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Yurich
authors.forename: Shiyoko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cothren
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Purichia
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Bouder
mesh_terms: D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D015588:Observer Variation; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results