autism assessments
At Lucens Psychology Services, as a team of trusted and highly experienced professionals, we offer full formal diagnostic assessments of autism spectrum disorder for adults and young people.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is also known as autism spectrum condition (ASC), though international diagnostic manuals refer to ASD. In the past, it was previously known under a variety of names, including autism, atypical autism and Asperger’s. Today, diagnostic manuals refer to the single term of ASD to acknowledge the large variation in presentation, strengths and challenges of individuals. The umbrella term ASD therefore ensures that clinicians and people working with an individual with a diagnosis do not make assumptions based on previous categories, but consider the individual’s strengths and challenges.
WHAT IS AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER?
In broad terms, autism spectrum disorder refers to a cluster of traits, tendencies and preferences, which can present difficulties for a person, to the degree that they impact on their occupational / academic and / or personal life. Differences and challenges are present in the following areas:
- Social communication and social interaction
- Using and understanding nonverbal communication
- Developing, maintaining and understanding social relationships
As well as difficulties in two or more of the following areas:
- Repetitive or stereotyped speech or movement
- Insistence on sameness and routines, or difficulties with change
- Highly specific or intensely focused interests
- Sensory processing differences, leading to sensory sensitivities or sensory seeking actions
WHY CONSIDER AN ASSESSMENT?
for children and young people
If you are a parent/guardian of a child or young person, having a consultation or assessment can be useful to begin to make sense of your child’s experiences, to understand their anxieties and distress, as well as behaviours or challenges. It can be useful to talk things through with experienced professionals and importantly to ensure your child receives the appropriate support going forwards, regardless of the outcome of the assessment.
If a diagnosis of ASD is made, it can help to make decisions about the most appropriate school for your child or alternative ways to access education, as well as help teachers better understand what anxieties and distress might be underpinning any behaviours they see. Importantly an assessment and diagnosis can help ensure that appropriate support is accessible at school / college, either contributing to an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) or ensuring reasonable adjustments are made in the educational setting.
Following an assessment, we provide post-diagnostic support and recommendations to support your child in education, to support you as a family at home, and to help your child understand their strengths, ways to navigate the challenges, and help them to thrive.
for adults
If you are an adult considering an assessment, you may have experienced struggles throughout your life making sense of interactions, becoming confused when people don’t say directly what they mean and struggling to understand the intentions of or read other people. Struggles may have led to lots of anxiety throughout life or low mood. You may have been diagnosed with other conditions, but never felt like they quite fitted or explained your lived experiences.
Taking the step to have a consultation can be daunting, but we will take the time to listen to your experiences; to hear about your strengths, skills, as well as your challenges along the way. Together with you, we will determine the most appropriate next step, which may be a full assessment. An assessment may be a means for you to explore and better understand yourself and your experiences, to gain a different perspective. Or you may be wishing to seek support for college, university, or in your place of work. An assessment can be a journey to to gain greater clarity about obstacles you have faced in day-to-day life and relationships.
Following an assessment, we provide post-diagnostic support and recommendations to support you in your next steps forward, with consideration of how to draw upon your strengths, and practical tools to manage the hurdles, to feel empowered in your journey ahead.
What is involved in an assessment?
Our ASD assessments have three stages:
Click the dropdown menus for more information on each stage
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An initial screening questionnaire is completed by the adult client or parent(s)/guardian(s) of the young person to determine whether there are possible traits of autism spectrum disorder.
A consultation with Dr Victoria Brattan is then held to gather more detailed information in the first instance to determine whether it would be appropriate for the young person or adult to have a full formal assessment of ASD or not. The cost of this consultation is £180.00.
If it is deemed that a full ASD assessment is suitable and you choose to go ahead with a full formal ASD assessment with us, the cost of this would be deducted from the fee associated with the full formal assessment.
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1) An extensive developmental history interview is held lasting approximately 2.5 - 3 hours. In the case of an adult assessment, this is held partially with the adult client and partially with their informant. Ideally this would be with a parent, but if this is not possible, with someone who has known the client an extended period of time.
In the case of a child assessment, the interview is held with the parent(s)/guardian(s) of the young person.
2) A standardised assessment is conducted with the young person or adult in the clinic to gather information about possible features of autism in a semi-structured way. This is called the Autism Diagnostic Observational Schedule 2nd Edition (ADOS-2) and lasts approx. 1.5 hours.
3) For child assessments, we liaise with school to gather observations from teachers who know the young person well, through questionnaires and phone calls. We may also suggest an observational assessment within the school setting.
4) In some cases we may recommend a cognitive assessment, which can assist to determine whether other factors may be contributing to difficulties, and which can also be very useful when considering recommendations.
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We believe it should never be one person making the decision whether a person meets criteria for a diagnosis of ASD or not. Two or more clinicians will be involved in the assessment process. We then hold a multidisciplinary team case discussion to consider all of the evidence gathered from different contexts and consider other potential explanations for the difficulties described. We reach a conclusion as a team.
Following the assessment, we provide:
- a feedback session
- a full report and recommendations
FEES
A full formal ASD assessment involves between 15-20 hours of clinical time. The fee for the full formal assessment of ASD, with the feedback session and report is £2200.
WHY CHOOSE US?
GOLD STANDARD ASSESSMENTS
We use 'gold-standard' tools to assess autism spectrum condition including the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Observational Schedule 2nd Edition (ADOS-2). We do not just place emphasis on what we see, but importantly ensure we gather information from the young person or adult directly about their internal experience, to consider any impact of masking / camouflaging. We follow guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE Guidelines).
highly experienced clinicians
Sometimes, people can appear to have autistic-like traits, but they may be attributable to other causes and not due to the neurodevelopmental condition of autism. As part of our professional assessment, it is important to consider whether traits may have an alternative underlying cause. This is explored in the extended interview stage with the Clinical Psychologist.
regulated professionals offering peace of mind
Contrary to the belief of some, getting a private assessment does not mean that a diagnosis is automatically given. All professionals involved in the assessment process currently work or have worked in the NHS as well as private practice, we are regulated by our professional clinical bodies (HCPC and BPS) and adhere to professional and ethical standards.