Autism assessment

I'd ask for a second opinion. 50 mins seems very little time indeed to pick up on all but the most obvious cases. What experience have these guys got with girls? The understanding is now growing that girls can get so good at masking and other compensatory strategies that their autism becomes all but invisible outside of those who know them well. But the diagnostic advancements haven't universally made it out to all professionals. How deeply did they dig into your experience with her? I can see that 50 mins might not provide enough evidence to allow a diagnosis in a lass adept at masking, but if what they are seeing doesn't fit with what you are reporting, I'd expect them to dig a bit deeper until they are sure one way or another.

I'm going with the Lorna Wing Centre because they have such expertise with adult women and having triaged my paperwork they want A FULL DAY to assess. They are also not happy to do it online because of the potential to miss some of the more subtle expressions. Whichever side of they line I'm on, I think it's going to take that to have confidence that everything has been properly considered and decided upon accurately one way or the other, particularly as I know my social behaviours are a million miles away now from the little girl who played with no one in primary and was bullied relentlessly in school for being different.

Like your daughter, I was little miss goodie two shoes in my lessons, and melted down regularly at home before retiring to my perfectly ordered room to be alone and dread the ordeal of dinner smells. My accamedic discipline was MFL and linguistics. I've since been a trainer and have learned what pragmatic language is about and how to use it quite well. But I studied it. I didn't intuit it. That doesn't necessarily mean there isn't ASC there and the perhaps the cause of some other difficulties. And I do worry that whilst some criteria are very obvious for me, others are very subtle indeed. 

Personally, if they tell me it's not autism, I will want to dig deep into what they are and aren't seeing and probing for an alternative explanation for what I am experiencing; not because my theory of what the problem is is so fixed I'd dispute their professionalism, but because I need to understand the truth, whatever that truth is.

Personally, I'd be asking what they do think the problem is if they don't think it's autism.

Good luck.

Thankyou for your reply.

The assessment was called The Oxford Virtual Assessment for Autism Tool - and was done by a clinical psychologist & observed by an autism practioner.

It seemed very child like & didn't seem to suit her age - not sure if that's just how it always is done?

They got her to look at a picture of a scene & pick out anything she thought didn't belong there. It was a picture of a children's play park, it had an old lady hoovering the grass, a boy playing an electric video arcade game,someone fishing in a sandpit. She just noticed the see saw looked weird - it was a double one.

Then she had to pretend to be a customer in a shop & ask to pay for her items. She struggled with this, no eye contact, kept looking at me asking what tshe should say. Then she had to be the shopkeeper & she just copied what the lady said previously.

They asked her how it feels when she gets angry & worried, she gave a fairly good description of this, saying her heart beat feels really fast, has lots of thoughts in her head - I said after the assessment was over & no longer online, that she done that part well & she casually said, "oh I made that up, it's what I've heard people say so I just said that!"

They asked what foods she likes & she said there were only a couple things she likes for breakfast as anything else makes feel sick - they said "oh yes, that makes sense then! And that was the end of that conversation! No mention of the other meals in the day, she only eats 3 different meals full stop, things have to be in a certain way on the plate too, 

Then she had to make up a story out of 5 household objects, she really struggled to start with, but she got through it, again copying what the the lady done first.

And that was basically it! They could only see her from the chest up, so all her fidgeting with her fingers wasn't seen.

There is a criteria that says it must be impacting on life, I believe.  If she seemed chatty they may feel that they didn't see a social impact and there isn't a learning one if her school work is good. 

There is of course a difference between insufficient evidence to diagnose and them deciding that there is no possibility of autism.  It sounds like you need to know which they are thinking and point out that you believe there may be evidence that has been missed.  I'd also let them know what she said about just copying "just what other people say".

I still can't believe they gave this 50 mins online.  Did they take a developmental history from you?

There is a criteria that says it must be impacting on life, I believe.  If she seemed chatty they may feel that they didn't see a social impact and there isn't a learning one if her school work is good. 

There is of course a difference between insufficient evidence to diagnose and them deciding that there is no possibility of autism.  It sounds like you need to know which they are thinking and point out that you believe there may be evidence that has been missed.  I'd also let them know what she said about just copying "just what other people say".

I still can't believe they gave this 50 mins online.  Did they take a developmental history from you?

Will do, thankyou. 

Keep us posted though.  Fingers crossed for you that they have some kind of answer that makes sense.

Yes I have done 3, one with the paediatrician & 2 over the phone with different autism practitioners. Plus other questionnaires.

The social side does impact on her life, & if left to her she would hardly leave the house.

Will just have to see what they say I guess!