This page tells you more about the assessments so that you and your child are well-prepared for the process.
There are three parts to the assessment, all children and young people who are seen for assessment for possible autism spectrum disorder will undergo the ADOS-II and the 3Di. If a cognitive assessment has not been carried out in the preceding two years, we typically require children and young people to undergo this assessment.
You will be invoiced separately for each part of the assessment by the clinician involved.
What To Expect
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Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-II (ADOS-II) (face-to-face)
The ADOS-II is carried out with the child / young person and involves talking and playing games. It takes about 50-90 minutes to complete and will likely take place at The Queen Anne Street Practice. Click on Locations below for further information on where our assessments take place.
It is likely that we will ask the parent or carer to sign a consent form so that we can record the assessment. This helps us to review the assessment and our scoring and be confident in our findings. During this part of the assessment, we are observing the young person’s social interactions and communication. It really helps the young person to perform to their best, if they are relaxed about the assessment. We have a waiting room in which parents can wait whilst the young person completes the assessment.
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3Di Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic Interview (video call)
A key part of the assessment for autism spectrum disorder involves an interview with the young person’s parents or carers, which takes an overview of the early history. The young person is not needed for this part. The interview takes between 50-90 minutes and is completed over Zoom so parents can join from home or work. Responses are fed into a computer program which uses an algorithm to get a result. We use these results to contribute to our diagnostic conclusions.
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Cognitive Assessment (face-to-face)
This is a more general assessment looking at problem solving skills and academic skills and it provides an essential overview of the strengths and needs within their learning profile. This helps us build a full picture of how the young person is functioning alongside the other parts of the assessment which are focused on social communication and interaction skills.
These assessments are typically carried out within the child’s home or school, or at clinic rooms in central London, see Locations button below for further information.
The cognitive assessment is always completed by a psychologist and takes between 3-4 hours, during which time your child with have breaks. It will be completed with the child individually. The young person is likely to be tired afterwards but in our experience all children enjoy the process.
Feedback
The team will meet together to discuss their joint findings before feeding them back to the family as a group, so a shared understanding, formulation, and set of conclusions and recommendations can be offered.
The feedback appointment will take place via a Zoom video call.
