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The Gilliam Scale

The Gilliam Scale: Your Complete Guide

The Gilliam Scale

Autism lies in the child’s stereotyped behaviors and little social interaction compared to his peers, and it is a multi-stage disease.

What is the Gilliam Scale? 

The Gilliam scale is one of the most important tools used in measuring and diagnosing autism and knowing its stage and degree of development. The Gilliam Scale is used for ages 3-22 for people who display symptoms that may be symptoms of autism, such as severe behavioral disorders or lack of social communication skills.

The Gilliam Scale contains 56 standardized scores and percentages that determine the likelihood of developing autism.

Gilliam Scale Components

The Gilliam scale consists of three subscales through which the stage of autism can be identified and diagnosed. Through each scale, a number of questions are asked, and the answers are limited to four options:

  • not noticed.
  • It is rarely observed.
  • Sometimes noticed.
  • always noticed.

These questions are answered through the parents, observing the child’s behavior and following up on the frequency of behaviors that may be classified as autism symptoms. The components of the Gilliam scale are as follows:

1. Stereotyped behaviors

Here are some of the questions asked in the Gilliam Stereotypical Behavior Scale

  • Does he avoid eye contact and look closely at the material around him?
  • Does it move forward or backward when sitting or standing?
  • Does he eat one food and refuse to eat another?

And other questions that are useful in estimating the extent of a child’s autism and parents’ comments are taken into account.

2. Communication skills

Communication skills lie in how to deal with others. Examples of questions related to communication skills are:

  • Does he communicate with others verbally?
  • Does he repeat words he has previously heard many times?
  • Does he avoid asking for things he wants?

3. The ability to social interaction

And that is by observing reactions in addition to the possibility of expressing feelings. Here are some examples to reveal the ability to social interaction :

  • Does he stay away from gatherings or group situations?
  • Does he get upset when you change any habit routine?
  • Does he do things repeatedly as if they were habits?

How does a Gilliam scale work?

The three subscales control the Gilliam scale index, and the scale index often rises when the number of repetitions of behaviors every 6 hours, and the Gilliam scale index increases when communication skills are low, in addition to its high when the child is unable to interact with others.

The examination takes 10-15 minutes and is one of the most common tests to diagnose autism or to determine the stage and type of autism .

Parents are also interviewed to inquire about the child’s stereotypical behaviors and the evaluator records observations. Autism is classified by Gilliam scale into three main categories,

  1. very likely.
  2. Probably.
  3. Intolerable.

This classification is based on the answers to the questions asked in each scale, where points are collected for the four answers mentioned previously, so the distribution of points is as follows:

If the answer is not observed, he does not get any points, but if the answer is observed rarely, he gets one point, while if the answer is observed, sometimes the number of points is 2 points, and finally, if the answer is observed, he always gets 4 points.

The higher the total score, the higher the Gilliam scale index, which indicates the presence of autism. These points are then converted into percentages to determine the level or stage of autism.

Gilliam Scale Work Evaluation

In general, the Gilliam scale combines the three scales that make up it, with an accuracy of 38%, which is considered a relatively small percentage, due to its lack of other scales or other sub-levels such as age, gender, and others.

Autism is a relatively difficult disease to diagnose because there are no laboratory tests that indicate its presence, but the Gilliam scale is an initial indicator of autism and knowing its stage and difficulty.

source : wikipedia

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