All about autism spectrum assessment

TTP #39: Dr. Cathy Lord – All About Autism Spectrum Assessment

Dr. Jeremy Sharp Podcast Leave a Comment

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If you haven’t heard of Catherine (Cathy) Lord, you’ve most likely used one of her instruments in your assessments. She’s been researching and developing assessment methods for autism spectrum disorder for about 40 years, and she is co-author of both the ADI-R and the ADOS (and ADOS-2) – two “gold standard” tools for assessing ASD symptoms. I talked with Cathy today about her ongoing research, upcoming clinical tools, and thoughts about the state of ASD assessment.

Here are some things we talked about:

  • Ongoing efforts to shorten and digitize the ADI-R
  • Differences in assessment of ASD between boys and girls
  • Ways to adapt the ADOS for females
  • The “ideal” battery for ASD assessment
  • The concept of “outgrowing” autism

Cool Things Mentioned in This Episode

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I’m so grateful to have Practice Solutions, a full service billing company for mental health practitioners, on board for sponsoring this month’s podcasts. Jeremy & Kathryn Zug are a husband-wife team ready to help you with all things billing – claim submission, billing statements, payment collecting, and verification of benefits & coverage. Get a 20% discount on your billing services when you mentioned the Testing Psychologist podcast!

About Dr. Cathy Lord

Dr. Catherine LordCatherine Lord, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with specialties in diagnosis, social and communication development and intervention in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). She is renowned for her work in longitudinal studies of children with autism as well as for her role in developing the autism diagnostic instruments used in both practice and in research worldwide today. She has also been involved in the development of standardized diagnostic instruments for ASD with colleagues from the United Kingdom and the United States (the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) an observational scale; and the Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI-R) a parent interview), now considered the gold standard for research diagnoses all over the world.

Dr. Lord completed degrees in psychology at UCLA and Harvard, and a clinical internship at Division TEACCH at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About Dr. Jeremy Sharp

I’m a licensed psychologist and Clinical Director at the Colorado Center for Assessment & Counseling, a private practice that I founded in 2009 and grew to include seven licensed clinicians, three clinicians in training, and a full administrative staff. I earned my undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina before getting my Master’s and PhD in Counseling Psychology from Colorado State University. These days, I specialize in psychological and neuropsychological evaluation with kids and adolescents.

As the host of the Testing Psychologist Podcast, I provide private practice consulting for psychologists and other mental health professionals who want to start or grow psychological testing services in their practices. I live in Fort Collins, Colorado with my wife (also a therapist) and two young kids.

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