Screening tomorrow

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So I think I'm panicking.

Rachael contacted me last week and said she had managed to get a screening booked for me (unofficially I think as my actual referral got sent to a completely different place) and it didn't really sink in until today.

I don't know what to expect. Ok, I'm meeting Rachael about 15 minutes earlier and getting settled into the room and talking a bit but I don't know who I will be talking to or what they'll be expecting or not expecting. Biggest concern at the moment is that I'll be laughed out of the room. Or that they won't give me a straight answer. Or that I end up crying.

At least they'll see me at high alert and self-soothing in a way. I plan to take my necklace and my bracelet (both of which I use to calm myself down [don't know if they are classed as stims or not]). I'm still scared[?] though.

Advice or tips on what to expect would be loved right now.

You'll be fine. The professional assessors are used to people being apprehensive. They won't laugh at you or be dismissive.

Be yourself. Try not to have preconceived ideas of how you think the interview screening should go. They know why you are there, and so let them guide you with the questions they want to ask, or activities they give you. Their job is to be inquisitive and rule out any other condition before they make a diagnosis or further referrals. In doing this, it may seem they're asking questions which don't apply to you and how you perceive the world, but it's part of the process. The psychologist that assessed me even had me draw a pencil drawing of a female figure on a piece of paper. Then he had me draw a male figure on another paper....I thought that was very odd, but it was part of his analysis, and he made a point of discussing it in his results interview with me.


Anyhow, don't try to prove one thing or another. Be open minded and try to be cooperative despite some of the process seeming illogical.

I just want to wish you luck, that it goes well and nothing upsetting happens. At least you can be sure that it will be over with by tomorrow evening! Try to relax, get the best night's sleep you can get under the circumstances, and have a good breakfast in the morning. If you think it would help you, plan something fun and/or relaxing for yourself to do afterward, like watch your favorite movie or pick up something good for lunch, basically anything you can use to focus on if you do net nervous during the test. That's what I do to help me get through scary stuff, and it usually helps.

I found the testing pretty interesting, and it was a nice calm environment with just me and the tester, not scary at all but still just a bit stressful. Good luck to you, let us know how it goes!

I stim with my rainbowy-stretchy bracelet that's actually meant for putting keys on.

Good luck. May the force be with you.

Thank you, all of you! I knew I shouldn't worry but then again I never can control it.

I'm still tired but I did get some sleep (after my brain stopped spinning). Time to go through my morning routine, there are only three hours left now.

Of course I'll let you all know how it goes.

Good luck. I hope you find the assessment and any answer that might come out of it helpful.

It was not too long ago that I went through something similar and it was actually quite a relief to be told that I was diagnosed. I had spent years wondering what was going on with me so finally having an answer was one of the most important moments of my life.

Let us know how you get on.

Ok, so as you may know I had my screening today. Granted the test he gave me was for people up to 17 years of age and 11 months old and since I am 18 and 18 days, it may not be accurate! Which I rolled my eyes at. This man does normally do screenings for younger children though as he is a part of CAMHS (Child and Adolescence Mental Health Service).

He was nice though. We did a few tests, well a lot of tests. He wanted to do them all today and they would normally be done in two sessions.
My head feels a little funny.

We did a test on finding the missing shape that was in the pattern. Then he got me to repeat several number sequences (just repeat, no adding or anything). Then he got me to define some words. Then read some words. Then repeat a sequence of numbers backwards. Then we did a construction test, where I had to make the pattern that was shown on a bit of paper. The we did this stage theory of mind thing, where it was something like ?Lucy found the cookie jar and opened it but mum had put spaghetti in it. Lucy was sad. Lucy put the jar away and went to play with her toys. Jamie saw the jar and went to open it. What does Jamie expect to see in the cookie jar?? It was just things like that. Then we did the whole ?match the expressions to the other one that is the same?.

I think that was all of it. Two hours and thirty minutes. My head hurts!

Although I did get a hot chocolate drink as he added up my score.

I think the outcome was that I was average in everything except the expressions and the construction. He said that my short term memory and my working memory (the number sequences) were amazing, and my construction activity was one of the quickest he had seen! I did score lower on the expressions ?10 is average and you got about a 7, which isn?t bad.?.

He?s going to write the full report and talk to Rachael who will possibly arrange another meeting to explore the facial expression stuff a bit more.
He did say that there was nothing overly worrying, as the facial expression test can be explained and it could be due to a lot of things. But over all I was average, just a few odd things on either side of that.

He said that he wouldn?t rush out and refer me elsewhere and he didn?t see any ?stand out? traits through today as I laughed at some of his jokes and I was able to do the theory of mind test quite well. So I don?t know. I think I?ll just have to wait and see, I did expect something else though. I did think it would be more about me and so on. Not just mental ability.

Thanks for letting us know how it went. I'm surprised you were told the basics of your results right away. I had to wait a few weeks to hear anything about my results! That's pretty lucky anyway.

It sounds like your testing was similar to mine, except I had a few more tests and I didn't have a theory of mind or expressions test. I also had to fill out some forms and my mom had to be interviewed.

It does seem a bit odd that he said he wouldn't refer you based on laughing at his jokes and passing that theory of mind test (I remember reading somewhere that many higher functioning kids on the spectrum develop enough TOM to pass that test around age 9, give or take a year or two). However, if none of your other test scores backed it up, then maybe it makes sense. Hopefully you will find out more when you get the full report, and be sure to ask him questions if you have any, or if you have concerns about anything.

So I've read about theory of mind a bit in Atwood's "complete guide..." But I'm still really unclear on the whole concept. It's being able to tell what another is thinking, right? So how does this scenario test theory of mind? How are supposed to know what Jamie is thinking?

****i just saw the TOM thread but that subject is confusing still.

Last edited by perpetual_padawan on 01 Jun 2014, 12:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

Who is Rachael?

Rachael is the person that's helping me 'transition' from a 'child/teenager service' to an 'adult' one. She's the one that has been doing all the check-ups on referrals and things.

I'm not overly certain on what theory of mind is. I think (from my understanding) that it is being aware that other people think differently, people with theory of mind are meant to be able to put themselves into other peoples shoes so to speak.

Ahhhh, well then, I have terrible theory of mind, because I have a really tough time thinking people might want to do things /think differently than me. However, I notice I'm most rigid on things I really care about. If it's something that's irrelevant to me then I could typically care less.