Our autism assessments are conducted by highly experienced and fully qualified professionals, in line with international best practice guidelines. Assessment includes a structured parent interview (ADI-R), and play-based assessment (ADOS-2). This means that they meet HSE and Department of Education standards.
What to expect
When you seek an autism assessment for your child, we will request initial information from you and your child’s school or creche. It is extremely important to have this input from people that know your child well in various settings.
We will then schedule a time to discuss your child’s developmental history. While we are happy to have you join us in our center in Tubberclair on the outskirts of Athlone, we are also very happy to accommodate this meeting online at your request.
We will also schedule for your child to come to our center to complete a standardized, play-based assessment. This is an opportunity for us to observe how your child interacts and engages, and how they respond to others in play or social situations. This will help us understand your child’s communication and interaction preferences. This process is lead by our Psychologist, but supported by an Occupational Therapist or Speech Language Therapist.
When accessing autism-specific supports, many schools or services will require details regarding a child’s learning ability. They may require confirmation of the presence or absence of an intellectual impairment using a developmental or cognitive assessment. Furthermore, these assessments provide important information about how your child learns. Therefore, we also recommend a full cognitive assessment with our Educational Psychologist. However, if you do not require this assessment, we will reduce the overall fee. You can discuss this with our team at the time of referral.
Once we have all of the relevant information, we will meet or speak with you to discuss our observations. We will aim to have this discussion within 2 weeks of the last assessment. Please be aware that the official report may take 4-6 weeks from the date of the last assessment to issue.
Family and Child Supports
We understand that the period of assessment and process of navigating services can be very overwhelming. After receiving the report and recommendations, it can sometimes take time to process the information and consider any questions. We invite any family who has pursued assessment to schedule a follow-up, 45-min support session with one of our team members. This is provided as a support to families at no additional cost, but must be requested within 2 months from the date of the report.
We also provide a full range of early intervention, behaviour, and anxiety supports for your child. Visit our services page to learn more.