As a part of the diagnosis of autism or one of the autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), you should get a neuropsychological evaluation which spells out in plain English the developmental deficiencies your child has. You have probably recognized many of these problems yourself and the evaluation should accurately reflect your observations since you know your child best. However, you might find yourself exaggerating your child’s capabilities and getting angry when the evaluation claims your child can’t do something you know they can. The neuropsychology evaluation should contain the results of a parent interview and the results of an inventory filled out about your child. The Conner’s Parent Rating Scale-revised(S), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale are common and important components to a complete neuropsychological evaluation.
A neuropsychologist with experience in autism and ASD will know which additional tests are most important for your child. It has both verbal and visual components. Your child might be years ahead in performing some visual tasks and way behind in things like word reasoning or the ability to name words on cards. You just need to be convinced they are doing an adequate job assessing your child.
There are other early evaluations which may be carried out on your child. These include behavioral psychology, occupational therapy and speech pathology. Be sure to carefully file all these reports in your reference book, organized by type of test. As your child is reevaluated, be sure to keep your records filed chronologically as well. For example, behavioral problems documented by behavioral psychologists can be used to argue for placement of your child in a specialized private school or autism program.
