What happens at an assessment?

Our previous experiences with autistic people and working with expert clinicians have led us to be passionate about assessments with the following characteristics:

  1. The person’s experience must be the most important factor in the assessment.
  2. Assessments must clearly show the person why a decision is made.
  3. Assessments must be clinically valid so the rationale to a diagnosis is easily understood.
  4. The assessment should look at other factors including a person’s situation, potential mental health difficulties and other neurodivergent conditions
  5. The primary purpose of assessment is to validate and explain.

     The Autism Act in 2009 brought in the ability for adults without intellectual disabilities to gain an NHS assessment. Our diagnosticians were all working with autistic people before that development. We all started working within the NHS on diagnosis as local services were set up and helped develop those services. At one point our diagnosticians were the NHS adult diagnosticians (outside of learning disability services) for three counties and a city! 

    We have done thousands of assessments so you can be confident in our expertise.

What happens

You can contact us by email - or use our "contact us” link.

We then get in touch to discuss our assessment process.

If you decide to go ahead we will book your first appointment.

The first appointment...

...lasts about an hour. We explore your personal circumstances and explain what is required for a clinical assessment. We agree suitable written questionnaires for the second appointment. At the end of the first appointment, we arrange the second appointment.

The second appointment...

...lasts up to three hours (with breaks or over more than one session). Is a narrative based developmental interview. Includes analysis of written questionnaires.

The report

You will get a detailed report outlining the diagnosis and post-diagnostic support information.

What other things does the report show?

Autism assessments - our approach

Our approach to autism assessments is based on a combination of keeping ourselves up-to-date with scientific knowledge and listening to thousands of people telling us about their experiences. The present understanding of autism is that it is a biological condition where pathways in the brain interact differently to the typical brain. These pathways are complex and still being explored by neuroscientists. The evidence is that autism is what is known as a “heterogenous” condition meaning that there are likely different processes that lead to the similar experiences autistic people have.

The majority of autistic people are autistic because of genes they have inherited from their parents. The genetic roots of autism are complex and are likely to involve interactions between various genes. These genes then lead to a person developing in a way that is relatively rare and can be identified. Although young autistic children are autistic, people around them may not notice, but the older someone is the less likely it is that they or others would have considered autism in childhood.

The Autism Spectrum Interview Schedule (ASIS)

Our diagnosticians are all trained in recognised tools such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale (ADOS) and Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI) and these have helped us develop our method. However our diagnosticians have also developed the additional tools we use which aim to accurately reflect the realities of many adults' lives and accessible information. We developed the Autism Spectrum Interview Schedule (ASIS) to help us with this.

ASIS is a narrative approach where we explore with the person their life and whether it fits the pattern described in the international diagnostic descriptions known as DSM-V and ICD-11. An assessment from us shows the person how they meet those descriptions. We explore with the person from before their birth to the present day. No diagnosis is clinically valid without childhood information. If a person has trusted people or school or health reports that can help with childhood information that is very useful. As are trusted people who can help with explaining adult situations. Our diagnosticians are experienced in working with people that do not have these trusted people.

Our team has also been involved in creating a post graduate autism assessment qualification.
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Our autism reports

We provide a detailed report outlining how someone is or is not autistic.  We also aim to show how experiences have also played their part in development. We do use the medical term autism spectrum disorder as the diagnostic heading as that is still the agreed medical term. We very much understand however that autism is essentially a difference to be understood rather than a disorder. Our report will also explain other conditions and will give ideas for people for moving on with their lives. Before a diagnosis is agreed the assessment is discussed with a clinical or doctorate level counselling psychologist

Other diagnoses

At NeuroProsperity we complete autism assessments. We will talk to you about other neurodivergent conditions and how you can be assessed for them. We can also point you towards additional support services and resources to help you on your diagnostic journey.

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)

ADOS has been considered the gold standard for autism assessment since its conception in 1989*. It is usually used in conjunction with the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI). The ADOS is now in its second edition. The ADOS consists of a series of structured and semi-structured tasks administered by a trained clinician and observed by two additional clinicians. The tasks involve social interaction between the clinician and the person being assessed. The aim is to observe and identify behaviours which are scored and to produce quantitative scores for analysis. Just like the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI), the resulting scores will indicate the presence of ASD if the cut-off scores are met or exceeded. At other times the scores may indicate autistic difficulties, which are below the threshold for diagnosis. Scores may also indicate that ASD is not present.

Assessments are done in five parts:

Part 1: ADI
This is a virtual appointment with parent(s) to gather information about the child’s early developmental history, using the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI).
This appointment will last up to two hours.
Part 2: ADOS
This is an in-person appointment at our Surrey clinic at to administer the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). This appointment will last up to an hour and will consist of an observational clinic with the child that is being assessed. One of our clinicians and the child will engage in a series of activities that is observed by two other clinicians.
Part 3: Multi-disciplinary Discussion
This consists of a clinical discussion amongst the clinicians, scoring the observational tasks and preparing the diagnostic report.
Part 4: The Assessment Report
The diagnostic report will also contain information about the assessment process and will summarise the information along the diagnostic criteria for Autism. We also include additional services we can offer, as well as signposting to other services.
Part 5: Feedback
Although optional, we would strongly encourage parents (and young people we have assessed) to attend a feedback session with one of our clinicians. This usually last around 30-45 minutes.

* Lord, C., Rutter, M., Goode, S., Heemsbergen, J., Jordan, H., Mawhood, L., & Schopler, E. (1989). Austism diagnostic observation schedule: A standardized observation of communicative and social behavior. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 19(2), 185-212.

Why choose NeuroProsperity for your autism assessment?

We believe our significant advantage is our experience. When you come to us you can be confident the person you are talking with has completed thousands of assessments. You can also be sure they have a positive view of autism, are up-to-date with present scientific knowledge and diagnostic requirements and will completi the assessment in a collaborative manner. 

“thank you very much for this and your time. It was really helpful and interesting and quite life-changing I think in how I relate to myself”

a recent comment from one of our clients
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