Supporting the autism care pathway

General development testing

Starting from birth, ‘whole child’ developmental measures such as the Griffiths Child Development Scales and the Intelligence and Development Scales allow practitioners to benchmark childhood and adolescent abilities and disabilities. They look at vital domains such as cognitive ability, general development, and executive functions. These powerful assessments often act as either crucial ‘early detection’ systems, or they serve to flag issues previously missed.

Early detection and diagnosis

And when autism or communication delays are suspected, early identification measures like the Early Sociocognitive Battery can take the pressure off busy health services by giving evidenced data quickly and reliably, allowing intervention to start as soon as possible.

When a diagnosis is required, Hogrefe supplies key measures from trusted partners. In the UK, these gold-standard assessments are part of every autism diagnosis and are in huge demand. In fact, every year Hogrefe trains upwards of 600 psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists and medical and educational professionals to use the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd Edition (ADOS-2) and Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) diagnostic tools. These individuals then form multi-disciplinary teams tackling long diagnosis waiting lists.

Ongoing support

But we recognise that support cannot end there. Autistic children, adolescents and adults can often benefit from ongoing support that can be supplied through: determination of autism symptom severity, proven autism-affirming communication therapies, and additional support at home, in school or in the workplace. This may include measurement of emotional regulation, emotional development and emotional processing, or access to school or workplace developmental assessments.