Autism Assessments
At Prime Psychology we offer gold-standard, independent, multi-disciplinary National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) compliant assessment, formulation and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC – sometimes referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD). We assess children and young people aged 3 to 18 years and adults of any age.
Our team are highly skilled at assessing ASC across all genders, ages and developmental stages. They have specific expertise in assessing ASC within more complex presentations such as those who mask/camouflage, who have gender identity issues, behaviours which are obsessive and/ or compulsive, those who exhibit complex mental health issues and those who may have been misdiagnosed previously and therefore require more specialist thinking, assessment and formulation.
Our strength-based approach is tailored to meet the needs of each individual child, young person or adult that we work with.
// The ASC assessment for children and young people involves:
- 1. Completion of screening questionnaires.
- 2. Information gathered directly from your child’s educational placement (nursery/ school/ college/ university).
- 3. Specialist multi-disciplinary assessment using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2). This is an activity based standardised assessment designed to probe for differences in social interaction, communication, behaviours and imagination. There are different modules that we use depending on the age of the person being assessed.
- 4. Specialist multi-disciplinary assessment using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADIr). This is a detailed parental interview which focuses on behaviours seen in young people with ASC and a general developmental assessment.
- 5. Your child’s behaviours and presentations will be discussed within our multidisciplinary team and assessed against the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition (DSM-V) and the International Classification of Diseases 11th revision (ICD-11) for ASC.
- 6. A feedback session where we go through the results of the assessment and consider what future support would be helpful.
A detailed report is provided at the conclusion of the assessment, with recommendations which is yours to share with whomever you feel appropriate.
Post-assessment support is available.
// The ASC assessment for adults involves:
- 1. Completion of screening questionnaires.
- 2. Information gathered from someone who knows the adult well (e.g. partner, sibling, parent, close friend). This usually involves them completing questionnaires but can also involve an interview.
- 3. Specialist multi-disciplinary assessment using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2). This is an activity based standardised assessment designed to probe for differences in social interaction, communication, behaviours and imagination.
- 4. Specialist multi-disciplinary clinical interview which is based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADIr). With adults where they are able and consenting to their parents’ involvement we will complete the ADIr with them. (This is a detailed parental interview which focuses on behaviours seen in young people with ASC and a general developmental assessment).
- 5. The adults’ behaviours and presentations will be discussed within our multidisciplinary team and assessed against the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition (DSM-V) and the International Classification of Diseases 11th revision (ICD-11) for ASC.
- 6. A feedback session where we go through the results of the assessment and consider what future support would be helpful.
A detailed report is provided at the conclusion of the assessment, with recommendations which is yours to share with whomever you feel appropriate.
Post-assessment support is available.