Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorders || The Importance of the Autism Referral

✍ Scribed by Gallo, Donald P.

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2010
• Weight: 172 KB
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 0470749245
• DOI: 10.1002/9780470682340.ch2

✦ Synopsis

The Importance of the Autism Referral

In graduate school, I was trained to identify and diagnose the problems with which my patients present with. Psychologists are taught to do this through a combination of observation, interview and, at times, psychological testing instruments. In this process, we are taught to assume that the information we receive is presented in an open and honest manner through which it is seen that the patients and/or their family members are truly interested in understanding the cause of the presenting problem and the ways in which it can be remediated. While I believe this is the case for most evaluations, it is not always so when dealing with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Because of that, several factors need to be taken into account before the first meeting with the patients and/or their parents.