Autism Assessments

What Is Autism?

Autism is a neurodevelopmental difference in how a person communicates, interacts with others, and understands the world around them.

Autism Comes with Many Strengths

Autistic people can have wonderful strengths, such as deep focus, creative thinking, and a great eye for patterns or details that others might not notice. Many autistic people have rich imaginations, special interests they are passionate about, and a strong sense of fairness and logic.

Autism Brings Differences, Too

Autism can also mean that someone experiences the world a little differently. These differences often appear in three main areas:

• How a person communicates, both with words and without words.
• How they connect and interact with others.
• A desire for predictability, strong focus on particular interests, and/or unique ways of experiencing sounds, sights, or other sensations.

Our Perspective at Everlief

At Everlief, we take a neuro-affirming approach to autism. We don’t view autism as something “wrong” or a deficit. It’s simply a different and valuable way of thinking and being. While autistic people may sometimes find social situations, sensory experiences, or communication challenging, many of these difficulties happen because the world isn’t always set up with neurodivergent people in mind.

Our Assessment Approach

At Everlief our autism diagnostic and planning assessments are done by a multi-disciplinary team. We base our approach on that used by the Lorna Wing centre for Autism in Bromley (National Autistic Society). There are five parts to the assessment, the largest of which is the DISCO parent interview (Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders).

It is important to note that the assessments can never guarantee a diagnosis. If your child is on the autism spectrum then this will come out through the assessments. Whether or not a diagnosis is given, the detailed set of reports you will receive at the end will focus on helping your child with their difficulties.

At the start of the process, one of the team will meet you and your child for an hour. They will get to know you and talk through what has led you to seek the assessment. At the end of this appointment they will either recommend full Autism assessment or not.

If we proceed with the full autism assessment it will consist of:

• DISCO (Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders) which is completed with the parents

• ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Version 2)

• School observation and input from school staff, or for older children input from school staff via questionnaire / discussion

• Occupational therapy (OT) assessment with our partners Leap Children’s Therapy

• Write up and generation of comprehensive report pack including diagnostic decision and recommendations

• Complimentary follow up appointment to discuss recommendations