An Autism Assessment is an assessment to establish whether or not your child is meeting the criteria for Autism based on diagnostic criteria provided by the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSMV).

An assessment to see if your child/young person is autistic may have been recommended by your child’s public health nurse, pre-school, school or another health professional. The assessment will provide information about your child’s strengths, abilities and where they might need support. 

Children and young people from the ages of 2-17 can be seen for Autism Assessment at Pathways Therapy and Consultancy.

At Pathways Therapy and Consultancy your child will receive a comprehensive assessment for Autism. As part of the assessment you and your child will meet with a psychologist and a speech and language therapist.  All the clinicians involved with assessments on the team have over 20 years experience working in the area. The assessment will help us understand your child’s experience of the world.

As part of the assessment the following is completed

• comprehensive parental interview
• pre-school/school questionnaires
• observation of your child at home/school/pre-school
• Autism Specific Interview (ADIR/DISCO)
• Play based assessment (ADOS)
• Adaptive Behaviour Assessment.

After the assessment is completed you will receive feedback from the team and a comprehensive report.

At Pathways Therapy and Consultancy we partner with a number of Chartered clinical and educational psychologists including CampbellColleranPsychology –   

During the course of an Autism assessment it is sometimes identified that your child may benefit from additional assessments. Examples of these assessments can include

• an assessment of your child’s learning need or cognitive ability.
• an assessment for a specific learning need  such as dyslexia or dyscalculia
• an occupational therapy assessment concerned sensory processing or identifying another type of neurodivergent brain such as dyspraxia
• a specific speech and language assessment – this assessment may help identify if your child is an analytical language learner or a Gestalt Language learner. Many autistic children experience communication differences; some are non speaking, others use different ways to communicate such as technology and pictures. Some children experience differences with social communication and how they understand what others say to them.
• a screening assessment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

We can arrange for these assessments to be completed or arrange for referrals to the appropriate health care professional.