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.

In this interview, Dr. Sharp talks with Cathy about her ongoing research, upcoming clinical tools, and thoughts about the state of ASD assessment. Here are some of the highlights from the discussion:

• 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

Format: Asynchronous, distance learning. Non-interactive. Recorded audio with transcript.

This interview was published in December of 2017.

Want to hear the interview? Listen for free using the audio player below.
Interview with Dr. Cathy Lord

Want to hear the interview? Listen for free using the audio player below.
Interview with Dr. Jeremy Sharp

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Catherine 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.

Dr. Jeremy Sharp is a licensed psychologist and Clinical Director at the Colorado Center for Assessment & Counseling, a private practice was founded in 2009 Dr. Sharp earned his undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina before getting his Masters and PhD in Counseling Psychology from Colorado State University. These days, Dr. Sharp specializes in psychological and neuropsychological evaluation with kids and adolescents.
As the host of the Testing Psychologist Podcast, Dr. Sharp provides private practice consulting for psychologists and other mental health professionals who want to start or grow psychological testing services in their practices. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife (also a therapist) and two young kids.

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