Preparing for Your Assessment

Once you have sent in your referral, one of our team will call you to discuss the assessments and book a date. You will then receive an email with everything you need to prepare for the assessments.

To begin the process, we will ask for some background information. This will include completing a questionnaire around you or your child’s full history, medical history, mental health and information around current concerns. We will also ask you to complete two mental health questionnaires and two autism specific questionnaires.

Please request GP records and have any other professional involvement such as school reports, occupational therapy or speech and language reports and any other relevant documents ready for your assessment.

We will need contact information for your informant, this will need to be someone who has known you since childhood preferably a parent or carer. If you do not have someone suitable, don’t worry, please contact us and we can discuss adaptations.

If you have any questions before your assessment, please let us know. 

During Your Assessment

Our clinicians use the Autism diagnostic observation schedule (ADOS) (2^nd edition). This will be done face to face at one of our locations or in your home and will take up to 1.5 hours.

During the ADOS assessment, there will be the assessor and the person being assessed. If applicable, parents are asked to wait outside, however if there is extreme anxiety, we can discuss the possibility of their presence in the assessment room. 

We will then arrange to talk with a parent/guardian or other relevant person (informant) using the Autism diagnostic interview – revised (ADI-R), this can either be done online or face to face and will take up to 2.5 hours. The ADI-R interview will be between the assessor and the informant. The person being assessed may also choose to attend. We may be able to arrange this for the same day as the ADOS assessment, or if not, it will be within 2 weeks. 

After Your Assessment

Following your assessment an MDT team of qualified professionals will meet and discuss the outcome of your assessment. Our team is made up of occupational therapists, psychologists, autism specialists, speech and language therapists and nurses. Two people from this team will complete the assessment report. 

You will then be offered an appointment to discuss the outcome, receive a full report and be offered signposting/further support resources.

We aim to complete all assessments within 13 weeks from referral.