Assessment Help

Hello Abe,  Happy New Year to you and it's great to hear that you are getting a good level of support - sounds like your employer in particular has demonstrated good practice.  

In terms of your assessment, my understanding (from information I read before my own assessment) is that the presence of another informant (usually a parent) is an important part of the process in terms of getting an accurate diagnosis.  This is because the person can report on your early development from the period when you were too young to remember and also so that the assessor can get another perspective on your difficulties/characteristics from someone who knows you really well.  In my case I was also concerned about my parents attending - in fact I almost didn't go through with it because I felt so guilty.  I had previously discussed autism with them and my Dad in particular had got very angry and dismissed the idea.  When I did have an assessment date arranged I was worried he would refuse to attend or not answer the questions truthfully.  I thought my Mum would find it very upsetting and perhaps feel judged as a parent - basically I thought I was going to put them through a horrible experience.  The reality of what happened was completely different though!! - as soon as they knew a clinical psychologist had said I should be assessed and that this would help me, they were totally supportive and came to the assessment.  The type of assessment I had was called DISCO (Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders) and this involved my parents being asked a standard set of questions, I then saw the psychologist separately and answered the same questions.  I also asked for the questions in advance but the psychologist said she wouldn't send them because this ensured the answers were spontaneous and more accurate.  There was nothing that I was asked that was uncomfortable / intrusive / difficult - it was basically just talking about what I could remember about my childhood and examples of the various characteristics of autism/aspergers.  My parents are both quite shy and don't like talking about personal things, both told me that they didn't find the assessment at all stressful though.

Of course, you know your parents best and what might be a good way to approach them but what I would suggest is to just set out the facts as you did in your post and perhaps give them some information about Aspergers (if this is not a topic they are familiar with) and ask if one or both of them will attend (they might feel more comfortable if both attend).  Perhaps just keep the conversation short and to the point and give them time to think about it before they give you an answer so the situation is less pressurised.  

Re. your school reports - I have never heard of these being used in an assessment but I doubt they are essential because so many people don't keep that kind of stuff.  Also, thinking back to my own school reports, they were a score out of 6 for each subject and couple of quick comments from the teacher, so I don't think a lot could be gleened from them.  My gut feeling would be not to worry too much about these but if you are concerned, check with the service who have arranged your assessment to see how important they are.  They may just say to bring along what you have.  If you do need to get hold of the others, then I would say to contact your old school in the first instance as I don't think those things would be routinely passed on to the local council.

I hope that this is helpful - very best of luck with everything!

Hello Abe,  Happy New Year to you and it's great to hear that you are getting a good level of support - sounds like your employer in particular has demonstrated good practice.  

In terms of your assessment, my understanding (from information I read before my own assessment) is that the presence of another informant (usually a parent) is an important part of the process in terms of getting an accurate diagnosis.  This is because the person can report on your early development from the period when you were too young to remember and also so that the assessor can get another perspective on your difficulties/characteristics from someone who knows you really well.  In my case I was also concerned about my parents attending - in fact I almost didn't go through with it because I felt so guilty.  I had previously discussed autism with them and my Dad in particular had got very angry and dismissed the idea.  When I did have an assessment date arranged I was worried he would refuse to attend or not answer the questions truthfully.  I thought my Mum would find it very upsetting and perhaps feel judged as a parent - basically I thought I was going to put them through a horrible experience.  The reality of what happened was completely different though!! - as soon as they knew a clinical psychologist had said I should be assessed and that this would help me, they were totally supportive and came to the assessment.  The type of assessment I had was called DISCO (Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders) and this involved my parents being asked a standard set of questions, I then saw the psychologist separately and answered the same questions.  I also asked for the questions in advance but the psychologist said she wouldn't send them because this ensured the answers were spontaneous and more accurate.  There was nothing that I was asked that was uncomfortable / intrusive / difficult - it was basically just talking about what I could remember about my childhood and examples of the various characteristics of autism/aspergers.  My parents are both quite shy and don't like talking about personal things, both told me that they didn't find the assessment at all stressful though.

Of course, you know your parents best and what might be a good way to approach them but what I would suggest is to just set out the facts as you did in your post and perhaps give them some information about Aspergers (if this is not a topic they are familiar with) and ask if one or both of them will attend (they might feel more comfortable if both attend).  Perhaps just keep the conversation short and to the point and give them time to think about it before they give you an answer so the situation is less pressurised.  

Re. your school reports - I have never heard of these being used in an assessment but I doubt they are essential because so many people don't keep that kind of stuff.  Also, thinking back to my own school reports, they were a score out of 6 for each subject and couple of quick comments from the teacher, so I don't think a lot could be gleened from them.  My gut feeling would be not to worry too much about these but if you are concerned, check with the service who have arranged your assessment to see how important they are.  They may just say to bring along what you have.  If you do need to get hold of the others, then I would say to contact your old school in the first instance as I don't think those things would be routinely passed on to the local council.

I hope that this is helpful - very best of luck with everything!