Mental health articles

assessment autism spectrum disorders Over the past forty years various ways have been developed specifically to assist in the diagnosis of autism. Because the cause of autism is unknown, diagnosis relies upon observation and description of the person’s behaviour and history of development. Systematic tools for this have been developed.
The diagnosis requires a comprehensive,multi-disciplinary (more than
one specialist) assessment comprising of the following:

A developmental history (e.g. was the child delayed in
speaking?)

A family history (e.g. is there another member in the family
that suffers from autism?)

Observation of the person’s behaviour and interaction with
others

A medical assessment including tests for known causes of
developmental delay (e.g. chromosome analysis to detect
genetic problems) and tests to check the person’s hearing

A language assessment and intelligence tests

Specialized assessment and observational checklists for
diagnosing autism, completed by a clinician, and other
checklists completed by a parent/carer or teacher
After completing the assessment the individual, parents and carers are
given feedback about the diagnosis as the first step in developing a plan of
intervention and services required.

Tags: autism, disorders