Autism Assessment process for Children & Young People

We will send out a pack of questionnaires by email for you. We will also email a questionnaire to be completed by the school SENCO, a Class Teacher, or a Teaching Assistant to gather observations about how the child interacts in and with the school environment.

Clinicians will complete a phone call with the child’s parent or carer to gather information on the development, behaviour, and skills since birth. The call systematically covers developmental history and captures early and current parental observations.

The ADOS-2 is considered a gold-standard diagnostic tool for autism spectrum disorder. It is carried out by specially trained clinicians. The ADOS-2 is suitable for all age groups but is tailored for each child’s language level. It explores their development in some key areas of interest for the diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder, such as the ability to share, attention and communication, aspects of play and imaginary thought and the way that communication is used.

The ADOS is usually administered by one clinician who records the session, enabling the assessment team to review the information afterwards to support their decision-making. There may be two clinicians involved when recording is not available. The ADOS takes from 45 minutes to about 1 hour to conduct, and a lot of this depends on the needs of the child themselves and the pace that best suits them.

We complete the majority of these appointments online. There are many benefits to this, including reduced change of routine, children can access their appointment in their own sensory environment, reduced communication demand with an online call, and no travel. We can provide support and strategies to help your child access their appointment online if this is something you think they will find difficult. Similarly, if you cannot access this in your own home, we can work with your child’s school to facilitate the appointment there.

A multi-disciplinary team meeting is when all the clinicians who are involved in the child’s assessment review and discuss all the information from the assessment. The MDT will use the DSM-5 criteria for autism spectrum disorder to determine if there is sufficient evidence from the assessment to meet the minimum criteria for ASD or not. Sometimes, at this point, clinicians may request further information from the family, to help them reach an outcome.

After the MDT meeting, the clinicians will have agreed an appropriate outcome for the child based on all the information and evidence from all components of the assessment. The clinician will arrange a phone appointment with the named contact in order to give the outcome, provide a summary of the overall assessment and provide suggestions of appropriate strategies or interventions that may be beneficial. A comprehensive, detailed assessment report will be shared with you within four weeks of your feedback phone call.