Have any of you done the 4-5 hour parent interview?

Post Reply New Topic

I have to do this tomorrow as the last part of my son's diagnostic process. I am not sure if this is standard procedure, or just the procedure of the particular center he was evaluated at. They told me that I should look through his baby books to prepare. Of course, I never made any. He screamed for six months straight and I had a very active toddler at the time and just never got it together to document all his milestones (although I have a fantastic memory). But, it dawned on me that 4-5 hours is a LONG time, and now I am feeling totally unprepared. Do any of you have experience with this? If so, can you let me know what kinds of things they will be covering so I can rack my brain ahead of time?

Thanks.

i had to participate in this type of interview for my son 8 yrs ago. from what i remember, here are some of the topics i was asked about: pregnancy risk factors, delivery complications, newborn behaviors (feedings/sleeping), muscle tone as newborn/infant, first smile, first tooth, vaccinations, allergic reactions, fevers, many questions on bowel/bladder/feeding issues! also, expect to recall developmental milestones such as crawling, walking, speech...& this is just a start! there will also be questions about environmental issues & family structure. it is overwhelming.

Thanks so much. It sounds like it will be draining. I should look at a typical milestone chart before I leave, I do know that he basically did everything on time.

I did not have to. But it may have been because I prepared a giant spreadsheet ahead of time that answered most if not all of the questions. The longest I spoke with them for was an hour.

I dont remember any one thing that long, but at my daughters multidisciplinary evaluation there were different people doing things with her, with me, and with both of us. I would think 4-5 hours with one person could feel quite overwhelming. Is this all with one person on one interview? Broken up wasn't as bad as it sounds, though I remember feeling really uneasy when they left me with her in a playroom and said we should do what we wanted and I knew they'd be observing my as well as her play skills lol

Yes, it's all with one person. I already met with a different person for about an hour while they were testing him. They mostly asked about his routines, friends, tantrums, etc.

There are many types of parent interviews now. Some they can just have you fill out on paper and do not take so long. I do not know much about this 4-5 hour interview. Let me know how that goes. I am quite interested.

So, it was 4 hours.

The first part, they did the ADI-R, which is weird because I had already filled one out for them about a month ago. I guess it's part of the evaluation to do it twice? But, it is an autism diagnostic interview. It covered a lot of questions about his milestones, when I first wondered if something was off, how he played with toys, how he interacted with other kids, sensory stuff, language, rituals, etc.

The second half was a bunch of questions related to various psychiatric disorders. I could tell they were looking to see if he had symptoms of OCD, anxiety, Tourette's, depression, bipolar disorder, ODD, ADHD, etc. After going through all the questions, the doc kept returning to the anxiety questions and asking more questions, then asking more questions based on my answers. She also kept returning to the OCD section. So, I'm guessing (based on my answers), that they may say he has some issues with anxiety and/or OCD.

So, this was the final part of the assessment. They already did a bunch of tests on my son, including the ADOS, IQ, Neuro Psychological, etc.

The doctor told me it could take about three more months to get a report and diagnosis (if any). Then, I will go back for a follow up review appointment.

I initially held off on saying anything because the only thing I could think of saying was "OMG! That sounds AWFUL!" and I didn't think that would be very helpful

...and now I know why I never had to do it...my son was diagnosed by a neurologist. Before our first appointment, I made a list of every possible diagnosis that I could think of (most included in above quote), annotated with both rule-in and rule-out symptoms. I located at least 3 checklists online for each potential diagnosis, completed them, and provided all of this to his office before my appointment.

He probably thought I was a nut. But now I think maybe I saved myself some time!

With my daughter, I honestly don't remember that much about her evaluations. I just remember there were a lot of them and it spanned over a number of days. She was diagnosed before he was and I found the whole thing to be overwhelming. I am sure it took longer than 4 hours in total, but I don't remember any of it being 4 hours in a row.

I'm glad you made it through! Hope it doesn't take that long to get an answer. I was very lucky. With my daughter, I had an answer in weeks. With my son, I had one at the end of the diagnostic meeting.

Lol! It was, surprisingly, not as bad as I thought- but pretty grueling.

I wish they had given me a list of what they were going to ask beforehand, though, because they were many things that I had trouble elaborating on right on the spot. For example: they asked if he ever invented words. He has, but I could only think of one right at the moment they asked. Then, toward the end of the interview (when they were asking about sensory stuff), I remembered two more of his invented words because they are words he uses to describe how his socks aren't feeling right. Also, when she was asking about rituals, I initially didn't put together that his weird habits that he does daily (like having to ring our buzzer and walk into our apartment in a very specific way, or needs to "redo" it) was even a ritual because they are just so ingrained in our routine that I barely notice them.

I felt kind of dumb throughout parts of it. She would ask about something he does (like wringing his hands or repeating phrases) and then ask: "And, what is his response when you try to stop him?" And, my answer always was: "I don't know, I've never tried to stop him."


I had to laugh at the file of checklists you took to the neurologist . That is something I would totally do. The first time I took him to a child psychiatrist, I basically spoke for an hour straight about all the things I had googled that I ruled out and had narrowed it down to a couple of different possibilities. How do you think I knew exactly what disorders they were asking about today? .