Assessed for autism

Hi James.

Might be a bit late now, but if not then please see below what I can remember from the face to face assessment meeting:

We started with some informal chat - led by the assessor and the psychologist mostly stayed quiet throughout.

It was explained to me that they had a set of questions to work through, which was in the form of a booklet. I didn't see anything that was written, but it was pretty much just notes based on my answers and I assume the document was filled in properly later on by the assessor.

Questions were about all sorts, but a lot of them focussed around social life / interactions / relationships etc (as I expected). There are no wrong answers, so don't worry about it and take as much time as you need to think of the answers. They aren't trying to catch you out and will help you with things as you go.

I had to carry out a couple of table top tasks and a little bit of storytelling using a few props. I hate doing things like that, but it wasn't too bad, so nothing to worry about.

I was in there for about 2 hours and a bit and it flew by. The people assessing you are there to make you comfortable and get a good enough picture of you to make an assessment. Just be honest with them and try not to second guess yourself. When I came out of my assessment I spent weeks wondering if I had said the wrong things and was thinking that they thought I was making it up etc; so expect a bit of that, but don;t worry about it too much.

Hope some of that helps, and good luck.

Dino

Thanks! Read it just in time as I'm about to leave for mine!

Just got back from it and I have to admit I felt like I barely got to talk about things I noticed in my early childhood (it was all focused on the last few years as an adolescent.) From the impression I got in the assessment, when my mum has to answer questions about her observations of me as a kid I *might* be able to join in with her but I'm not sure, so either way I'm going to have to write some of my experiences she doesn't know about down so things aren't missed. Like for example my mum is clueless about some of my special interests as a kid, and doesn't realize how obsessive I was over certain things like sinking ships and so forth. And she won't know about some of the odd social interactions I had at that age, how gullible I was etc (one of my friends told me as a joke to run into a fence at school and I did not realising it was a joke...)

To be honest, I don't think they are bothered about a continuous record of potential traits; I think they just need to demonstrate you have had the issues at some point and especially ongoing now.

I took a page of notes in with me to the assessment and they actually asked if they could keep the piece of paper to add to their report. One of the things I told them about was my better than average attention to detail, and the page of notes was full of grammar errors because I typed it in a hurry before I set off, haha.

Dino

Yep I was confused when the person assessing me mentioned that I might be able to join in as I thought that would be odd. There was one thing she said though. I told her when she asked me about when I had first suspected ASD that I had written a few pages on what I thought were signs of autism in me, to explain to my parents. In response she said it would be useful if I could send that over, so I will probably do that. My main worry wasn't over anything I did as a baby through to a toddler (my mum has already told me a lot about that which would align with ASD such as sensory difficulties and so forth), my worry was over in particular the mid - later years of primary school where there were social interactions I had which I found difficult or didn't understand but never mentioned to my parents (such as the fence one I mentioned!)

Anyway you are right that I shouldn't worry too much. My mum will give them plenty of info from my early childhood that should in theory be enough combined with what I've told them. I am just worried that it will look like there is a hole in the middle of my life where there doesn't appear to be any social difficulties when I just told nobody about them. Thanks Rick!

That fence bit just made me laugh, sorry. The assessment meeting does fly by and I felt like I had missed loads of things out or wasn't asked about things I felt were important to the assessment - I wouldn't worry too much because they know what they are looking for.

I would be surprised if you are allowed to sit in with your mum because they might think you are feeding her info or something. My mum was totally clueless about my oddities, and I think partly in denial because she thinks she missed something; but when she had the call with the team she said totally innocuous things or events started to make sense. I think they spent a lot of time talking about my general behaviour, especially as a baby, which is where a lot of the developmental difficulties are most obvious.

Relax now - you have done your bit and try not to get too worked up about waiting for the next letter or results like I did, as it will be a few weeks yet. I found it hard waiting for the outcome because I knew that they had made a decision so I wanted to know immediately.

I hope you get what you want out of it and the long process is finally coming to an end for you.

Rick

That fence bit just made me laugh, sorry. The assessment meeting does fly by and I felt like I had missed loads of things out or wasn't asked about things I felt were important to the assessment - I wouldn't worry too much because they know what they are looking for.

I would be surprised if you are allowed to sit in with your mum because they might think you are feeding her info or something. My mum was totally clueless about my oddities, and I think partly in denial because she thinks she missed something; but when she had the call with the team she said totally innocuous things or events started to make sense. I think they spent a lot of time talking about my general behaviour, especially as a baby, which is where a lot of the developmental difficulties are most obvious.

Relax now - you have done your bit and try not to get too worked up about waiting for the next letter or results like I did, as it will be a few weeks yet. I found it hard waiting for the outcome because I knew that they had made a decision so I wanted to know immediately.

I hope you get what you want out of it and the long process is finally coming to an end for you.

Rick

To be honest, I don't think they are bothered about a continuous record of potential traits; I think they just need to demonstrate you have had the issues at some point and especially ongoing now.

I took a page of notes in with me to the assessment and they actually asked if they could keep the piece of paper to add to their report. One of the things I told them about was my better than average attention to detail, and the page of notes was full of grammar errors because I typed it in a hurry before I set off, haha.

Dino

Yep I was confused when the person assessing me mentioned that I might be able to join in as I thought that would be odd. There was one thing she said though. I told her when she asked me about when I had first suspected ASD that I had written a few pages on what I thought were signs of autism in me, to explain to my parents. In response she said it would be useful if I could send that over, so I will probably do that. My main worry wasn't over anything I did as a baby through to a toddler (my mum has already told me a lot about that which would align with ASD such as sensory difficulties and so forth), my worry was over in particular the mid - later years of primary school where there were social interactions I had which I found difficult or didn't understand but never mentioned to my parents (such as the fence one I mentioned!)

Anyway you are right that I shouldn't worry too much. My mum will give them plenty of info from my early childhood that should in theory be enough combined with what I've told them. I am just worried that it will look like there is a hole in the middle of my life where there doesn't appear to be any social difficulties when I just told nobody about them. Thanks Rick!