What to expect at autism evaluation

[AimeeM]

We were able to get The Marvelous Flying Marco an eval with a private practitioner for an evaluation (she actually works for the local city clinic that does the evals, but they were quoting up to a year - 6 to 12 months - wait, and she happens to have a small private practice on the side).

 

It will be a series of 3 appointments. The first appears to be a meet and greet; the second will last several hours (at least); the third will be when she goes over the results with us and makes her recommendations.

 

No matter the outcome, we would like to a recommendation for ABA therapy. Marco's speech therapist used it quite a bit with him during her sessions and he responded beautifully. We lost that therapist when we moved, but we'd like to pick back up the ABA portion. 

 

What can we expect during the evaluation? The only thing I'm a bit hesitant about is that these are late afternoon/evening appointments (will extend to almost his bedtime), because of her other world schedule, which means Marco will be at his absolute worst :(

 

 

[Mergath]

How old is he again? We had various evaluations for dd when she was younger because of her genetic disorder and delays, but none of them ever lasted several hours or longer. That would concern me.

 

As for what will happen, all of dd's evaluations were very laid back, mostly games and chatting. But as I said, none of them ever lasted several hours, either. I think that would have been pretty stressful.

[Rosie_0801]

Marek was diagnosed by the paediatrician, who didn't even bother to turn around in his chair, as soon as he walked in the room.

 

To make it official, we had to fill out long questionnaires, have a hearing test, a speech path evaluation and a psychologist evaluation.

 

The psych evaluation consisted of trying to make him take an interest in poor quality toys, then trying to make him stop as soon as he deigned to bother.

 

None of the sessions lasted over an hour.

 

 

Ultimately I'm not sure how much it matters whether they deem him autistic or not because it's such a laundry basket of a diagnosis. If Marco is at his worst, all the better. That's going to make it more likely they'll let you have the recommendation you want, no?

 

:grouphug:

[Carrie12345]

Ours were spread out over 6 or 8 visits, but it was a long drive and I was pregnant and dragging a baby, then dragging 2 babies, to each appointment, so just as bad!

 

DS met with different specialists for each aspect, but I would assume similar things will take place.  They went through IQ, pragmatics, physical and occupational evals, lots of general health questions, behavioral assessments...  He was 4 at the time, so the majority of it all was done very playful.  I wish all the questionnaires *I* had to fill out had been half as much fun!

[DawnM]

We were trying to get the state assessment done because it was free.  They quoted us a 12-18 month wait time.  Somewhere around the 9 month mark (of me waiting) the state changed their rules and no longer offered 100% free assessments.    They decided that the academic portion could be done at the local schools, so they would only provide the neurological portion for free and if you wanted the educational portion outside the school, you would have to pay $600-$700.

 

It was very maddening since I had avoided the schools for a variety of reasons, including long wait times.

 

I finally went private and it ended up being fine.  Insurance covered the neurological and I had to pay for the educational portion, which I was ok with when using a private assessment.

 

They did the educational portion first.  This was to provide them with a baseline, an IQ reading, and a way to see where he was academically.  

 

After that there were a series of tests done, I would have to find the exact ones, but it was a battery of tests to determine where he was on the autism scale.  

 

Since he was already a teen by the time we had him officially tested (we were well aware he had Asperger's before the test), they did a first session explaining the test, and asked me a lot of questions about him and bringing in a pre-filled out from by me, a 2nd very long session testing, and a 3rd session of follow up.

[JFSinIL]

well, if he is at his worse, then you may get a result that can lead to more help for him than if he was able to cooperate and not look as bad. 

Nothing the evaluator says is going to change Marco or what you know about him.  It may help get more services, though.

 

When my kid with autism was a bit older than Marco, and we needed to show his true i.q. and abilities,( to prove our home-based ABA was working) we found a neuropsych who was able to schedule testing (including the Leiter non-verbal intelligence test to get around Joe's severe auditory processing delay etc)  over THREE mornings, so Joe would be at his best and not get bored/tired out. The official results we got prevented the school district from trying to place Joe in the lowest category classroom.  He was (is) of normal intelligence. His autism/langauge problems get in the way of his showing what he knows and can do.

 

Since you are at the beginning of your journey,  a tired, cranky Marco may be what you want, if it helps the evaluator see him at his most affected.  You want a report that will help you get ABA etc. Not one that dismissed your concerns and Marco's needs.

 

 

 

Good luck!

[SproutMamaK]

Evaulations for my oldest were similar. Several hours at a time, several weeks in a row. They observed how he played, offered various toys to see how he reacted to them, sat and communicated with him in lots of different ways to see how he responded. tried to do physical things with him to test his motor skills and comprehension, etc. It was very thorough. Like you, it was usually scheduled for the WORST time of day for him, which ended up being a good thing. They got to see the behaviours I was struggling with at home when they normally wouldn't have. And he actually wasn't as bad there as he was at home; the new environment and all the interesting things kind of shocked him out of his usual rambunctiousness, I think.

[Kathryn]

That's exactly how ours went. The exact tests used in the second appointment were determined after meeting him in the first appointment. Before the first appointment, there was a lot of paperwork to fill out. At the first appointment, we were given questionnaires to fill out and give to teachers and therapists. At the second appointment, they did an IQ test, gave us another questionnaire to fill out, asked us questions, and did an evaluation of him through play. At the third appointment, they gave us the packet of papers detailing his results and containing information about community resources. They also answered any questions we had. I think the third appointment would have been more detailed, but we traveled two hours away to Greenville Hospital as that was the first place we could get an appointment (and that took almost a year), so they weren't familiar with services in our area and couldn't really help with that.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Our evaluation was for a teen and wasn't specifically for autism (though he does have an ASD diagnosis as well as some other things).  There was a lot of paperwork.  There was no separate meeting to get to know him - just the first ten minutes or so to chat about things alone with my teen and then with me for about the same amount of time to see what my concerns were.  Then there was a long block of testing - a few hours.  Because he was older that didn't need to be broken up and he didn't need extra time to get used to the neuro-psych.  There were no toys though I'm sure at younger ages there would be.  I wasn't actually present for the testing but my understanding the different tests used pen and paper as well as a computer at one point.  We came back at a later time for a discussion of the results and then requested one extra meeting to discuss treatment/options as I still had questions. The appt. time originally was about 6 months out but because we homeschool, he put us on a cancellation list.  We were able to get in much earlier because of our ability to be flexible. 

Edited November 27, 2015 by Jean in Newcastle

[TechWife]

We had testing done over a series of four appointments. The first one was parents meeting with the neuropsychologist. We spent about an hour together and she really listened to what what happening with ds and took an extensive history from me. At the end of the visit we brought ds in for about 15 minutes so he could meet her and get comfortable with her. She also gave me several evaluations to fill out. Some were for me, some for his father and one was a teacher evaluation, which she wanted me to fill out. We filled them out at home and then returned them on the second visit. 

 

The second and third visit was just the neuropsychologist and ds. They did several different tests - the tests vary depending on the findings of the intake interview and the evaluations we filled out. There were some "hands on" tests, some oral tests and a little bit of written. Each visit was about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. 

 

The fourth visit was for parents to go over the results. It lasted about an hour and was very informative. 

 

DS was tested four times with two different providers over his school years, all testing followed the same pattern. We did include him in the parent visit the last time (he was a senior in high school). 

[Jennifer132]

Ours had his eval at age 5. We had the same series of appointments you speak of. The child need not come to the last appointment. The first appointment will be very casual. Your child can play with toys in her office (she will likely have many) and she will chat with you about your concerns and have many forms for you to fill out. She will also subtly observe how he interacts during the appointment.

 

The second appointment is for him only. We actually weren't in the room for most of it. I'm not sure if that's different with a younger child. We thought our son would not want to leave us, but he did. So, go figure. This will be play based. She will try to interact with him and do various quick, fun activities and see how he responds. Our son actually really enjoyed it. Lol.

 

The third appointment she will take some time to go over her findings giving you examples and showing you how he did on the different assessments and why she gave him a particular score. Then she will suggest resources and therapies for him (if diagnosed).

 

That was our experience anyway, and I think it was pretty typical.

[BooksandBoys]

We just finished our evaluation process on Wesnesday. Ours was a one hour interview with just my husband and me. Then, I took DS7 in for two, three-hour sessions where they administered an IQ test, ADHD evaluations, and autism tests (he played, they watched, they challenged him to do things, watched his reactions, etc). The last hour and a half of the second session was another interview with me. Finally, we had a one-hour meeting without DS to go over results.

[kbutton]

We had our evaluations piecemeal because of how we went into the process, but we had to give extensive histories (in our case, this was one of the most important pieces for proper identification), fill out surveys (some of which didn't make sense, so we had to annotate our answers to be accurate), and then some iQ testing and such with our son.

 

If Marco is at his worst, yes, it will be good in many ways, but prepare yourself for some potentially starting results. It's never easy to see those kinds of things in black and white even if you are seeking answers to those very things. 

 

Best wishes that you get great information and excellent recommendations! It's both exciting and disconcerting, and I really hope it ends up being just what your family needs for Marco to grow and learn at his best.

[AimeeM]

Thanks everyone :)

I suppose it will be best that he's at his worst... although, honestly, one of our major concerns is the behavior he displays even when he's in a great mood. Indeed, sometimes those are more dangerous. Someone on this board put it best when they said that even at his best, Marco has "no sense of self preservation." When he's at his worst (tired, overwhelmed) his behaviors are more along the lines of dangerous tantrums (self harming, however unintentional) - but when he's at his "best" and in a great mood, they are more... thrill seeking, sensory seeking, "I'm going to have the time of my life, to heck with safety!", kind of behaviors.

 

If he can gain a dx of autism or something similar, our long-term goal is not only ABA therapy, but a slot for him in a highly reputable private school (local) for autistic children. It was actually an admin at that school who helped me get this appointment; I called to ask questions about the school, she told me that we needed to get his self harming behaviors a bit more under control before we looked into her school further, and gave me the name/number of this doctor - and then told me to call her after we saw the doctor, and she would be happy to walk me through the next steps, even if we didn't enroll in her school. (she impressed me, I'll admit)