What Happens After an Autism Assessment?
You and your child have just walked out of the testing room after completing the autism assessment. You may be wondering, “Okay, but what’s next?” Some parents are anxious to get the results during the testing appointment. This is totally understandable! You may have waited a long time and jumped through a lot of hurdles to get to this point.
But the reality is that there are a few more steps needed before the autism assessment is truly complete. These steps ensure that the results are accurate, thoughtful, and tailored to your child.
Scoring and Interpreting the Results
After you leave the assessment, the clinician will spend time scoring the measurements that were used. This may include questionnaires you completed as well as observational measures, like the ADOS-2. The results are then integrated together to get a full picture of your child. This is the process of interpreting the results. The clinician looks beyond the numbers in the scores to make sure that everything is consistent and makes sense. Sometimes, this process can reveal that additional testing is needed to better understand your child’s strengths, support needs, or developmental profile.
Gathering Additional Information
With your permission, the clinician may also contact other trusted adults who know your child. This may include:
Teachers
Therapists
Pediatricians
This can be a helpful process to gather more information, especially about how your child engages with others in different settings.
The Final Report
All of the information gathered during the evaluation is then summarized in the final report. This is the document that you will be able to take home. It typically includes:
Your child’s developmental history
Names of the tests administered
Results of each test
A clinical interpretation of findings
A diagnosis (if applicable)
Individualized recommendations to support your next steps
The Feedback Session
Most clinicians offer a feedback session to families. This is a time when the clinician will review the results with you and provide you with an opportunity to ask questions about the results of the assessment.
What This Looks Like in My Practice
In my practice, I use the feedback session to walk through the report together with parents. My goal is to make sure the results feel meaningful to parents, rather than just a bunch of numbers in a document. I take time to explain how each part of the assessment fits together, what the findings suggest, and how they relate to your child’s everyday life.
I also really value going over the recommendations with families during this session. I want every family to feel like they have a good idea of next steps to take, even if their child did not end up receiving an autism diagnosis.
If you’re interested in a focused autism assessment in the Irvine or Arcadia areas, I’m happy to schedule a free 15-minute call with you to talk more about what my process looks like.