What to Expect

The evaluation consists of three appointments and is conducted by a New York State licensed clinical psychologist with extensive autism experience.

 

First Appointment: Interview (up to two hours)

  • The first appointment is an interview with the custodial parent/guardian of the individual being evaluated.
  • The parent/guardian will be asked to describe their current concerns and provide information about their child's medical, educational, and developmental history, as well as his/her current social communication abilities and behaviors of concern.
  • For this appointment, it is generally helpful for parents to bring copies of recent psychological, educational, or other types of evaluations, and/or written documents from school (i.e. individualized education plans, etc.).
  • Based on the parent's concerns, we may send the parent home with paperwork to be completed by them and/or the child's teacher, in order to gather more information about his/her skills and areas of need.
  • We ask that the child not be present at this appointment.

 

Second Appointment: Testing (up to four hours)

  • During the second appointment, our psychologist will first conduct a cognitive or developmental assessment of the child's abilities.
  • Following the cognitive/developmental testing, our psychologist will complete the autism-specific testing using the Autism Diagnostic Observational Schedule (ADOS-2). The ADOS-2 is a gold-standard autism assessment tool that specifically assesses for behaviors related to autism spectrum disorder.
  • Depending on the child's needs, there is time built into the testing block for the child to take breaks and have a snack.
  • The parent/guardian will also be asked to complete an interview about their child's daily living skills and day-to-day functioning.
  • If any additional paperwork or measures were given to the parent/guardian at the first appointment to be filled out by the parent, child and/or teacher, these would be returned to the psychologist during this appointment.
  • A parent/guardian must remain on the premises during the entire appointment. Depending on the child, the parent may be asked to remain in the testing room or return to the waiting room during portions of the appointment.

 

Third Appointment: Feedback (up to one hour)

  • This final appointment is face-to-face feedback, where the psychologist will go over the test results and provide their impressions and recommendations to the parent/guardian.
  • There will be time during this appointment for the parent/guardian to ask any questions. It can sometimes be helpful to write down questions in advance.
  • A detailed report will not be provided at this appointment. It will be mailed home several weeks following this session. The report will include recommendations for intervention planning in the home, school and/or community.
  • We ask that the child not be present at this appointment so that the psychologist can freely discuss any concerns with the parent/guardian.

 

Additional Appointment Information