Autism
Assessment

Autism assessments for young people aged 2-18.

Our assessment process is collaborative and child-centred. It includes meeting with you and your whānau, spending time getting to know your child, and gathering information through conversations with you about your child’s development, strengths, and needs. As part of the assessment, we use standardised assessment tools, including the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). We also consult with our multidisciplinary team.

Following the assessment, you’ll receive a comprehensive report that includes recommendations for support.

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How it works

  • We will meet with you to learn as much as possible about your current concerns, the young person’s development, strengths, interests, experiences, challenges and educational history.

    We may also give you standardised assessment questionnaires to be filled out by you or by the young person’s teacher.

  • We spend time with the young person and interact with them through a structured, empirically validated assessment called the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2).

    This assessment is designed to assess the young person's social and communication skills. It takes approximately one hour.

  • We meet with our interdisciplinary assessment team to go over the information gathered and analyse the data.

    We formulate our clinical impressions, feedback and recommendations for the report.

    We may recommend further evaluation using more specialised tools at this time to rule out other co-occurring diagnoses.

  • You’ll receive a comprehensive report explaining the results, as well as clear recommendations for support.

    We meet with you to discuss the findings and recommendations.

    An additional meeting with your child’s school team is available upon request.

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 FAQs

    • The first meeting with you will take between 1-2 hours.

    • We will then observe and interact with the young person which will take approximately 1 hour.

    • Following this, the assessor will consult with our interdisciplinary team before writing a report and meeting with you to discuss the report. This feedback meeting will take approximately 1 hour.

    • You will receive a written report which will be finalised within one month of the first assessment session.

    • We will talk through the report, and our recommendations and answer any questions you might have.

    • We will do everything we can to adjust the tasks in the assessment to the young person’s needs.

    • This may include splitting the assessment into two shorter sessions or having regular breaks throughout the session.

    • Our clinicians are experienced with reading and responding to a young person’s cues.