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Diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorder Early with ASD Testing

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The Lizard Centre

When Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is suspected, your child will need a complete assessment or evaluation and should be referred for intervention. A full assessment or evaluation for Autism Spectrum Disorder is required before arriving at a diagnosis. Ideally, this is done by a team of professionals and includes asking parents and caregivers a number of questions, observing the child, performing a physical examination, and administering different tests.

Autism Spectrum disorder covers a spectrum of children with a wide range of skills and impairments. Due to this, the developmental disorder can look very different from child to child. It is important for parents to understand what ASD disorder testing will involve and why ASD diagnosis is important.

Presently, there is no definitive laboratory test for Autism Spectrum disorder. Making Autism Spectrum disorder diagnosis is just the beginning. Specialists then perform in-depth evaluations to understand your child’s unique strengths and challenges. This assessment is essential for defining what kinds of educational programs and behavioural therapies would be most beneficial. This is called a multidisciplinary assessment. When many specialists work with your child, it provides your child the best chance of a proper diagnosis. It also helps to develop the best treatment plan for ASD disorder. The specialists will ask you questions about your child and measure your child’s strengths and weaknesses.

As there is no particular test for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), autism diagnosis is based on interviewing you, watching how your child plays and interacts with others, how your child is growing now and reviewing your child’s developmental history.

There are four main areas that are assessed when explaining ASD disorder to your autistic child. These are behaviour and family history, cognitive abilities, communication skills, and medical assessment.

The first assessment will usually include a childhood psychologist or pediatrician interviewing the parents and family members of the child undergoing ASD Testing. For children who are of school age, they might be asked to complete written literary and numeracy tests, as well as IQ tests, to test their cognitive levels against standardized benchmarks for their age.

The communication is one of the main areas impacted by Autism Spectrum Disorder, the next phase of evaluation will include a speech pathologist or therapist engaging the child in different communication tasks. With tests involving verbal and non-verbal tests and pragmatic language skills, this phase of ASD Testing aims to know how well the child can communicate and how they use language.

Medical evaluation may be carried out to evaluate a child’s physical health and determine any physical ailments that may influence their testing results. If your child’s autism spectrum test comes with a positive diagnosis, then you require an early intervention service for your autistic child.

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funds early intervention programs for children with autism, which can have a major impact on ensuring your child gets the best possible start to life. Professional carers with their extensive knowledge on the NDIS can help you access your NDIS funding.

So, find reliable support and help your autistic child today with professionals.

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