What to expect at our autism assessments

What happens before the appointment?

Before meeting our team, you and your family may be asked to complete a number of questionnaires that will help us to understand more about you and your child. These will be sent via email or online and you can return them to us before your appointment. Unfortunately, information presented following the assessment will not be able to be considered.

What to Expect on the day?

On the day of the appointment, the family will meet two members of the team, usually a child and adolescent psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist. This meeting will last for approximately 120 minutes and during this time you and your family will be given lots of opportunities to explain the difficulties your child has been experiencing and ask questions.

The meeting will start with everyone in one room and then you will meet with one member of the team while your child meets with the other member of the team. We believe this is important as sometimes it is easier to talk about difficulties when there are less people present.

At the end of the meeting our team members will meet for a brief time and will then provide their joint feedback to you and your family about what we think will be the most helpful next steps to support your child. You will be given time to discuss the outcome and ask questions. This will involve diagnosis where appropriate and may involve recommendations about treatment. Occasionally further assessments may be recommended.

Can you do Virtual Consultations?

Consultations, or parts of consultations can be arranged virtually. Families need to accept the levels of security of standard virtual meeting software packages.

We can meet with you virtually for an appointment to cover your concerns and gather all the information we need about your child’s development and wellbeing. We will then meet with your child at the clinic on a different day to complete our assessment. We have responded to national pandemic concerns by putting in place a number of necessary steps to promote safety and reduce risk to your family. These will be talked through with you prior to the assessment. A feedback session will be arranged over virtual platform. You will be given time to discuss the outcome and ask questions. This will involve diagnosis where appropriate and may involve recommendations about treatment. Occasionally further assessments may be recommended.

What happens afterwards?

Once the assessment and findings have been discussed, a report will be written by the team and sent to you and your family. Our reports are comprehensive and include details of our assessment, information provided by you, a diagnosis if relevant, our understanding of your child’s difficulties, our recommendations for your child and lastly resources for you to explore.

We recommend that you share our report with your GP along with any other health care professional who is supporting your child (e.g. GP, Paediatrician, etc).  Our report can also be shared with your child’s school and used towards an EHCP – Education Health Care Plan.