screening assessment

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Well, had my screening assessment this morning.

My friend chummed me and we got there just after 9.20am (it was at 9.30am). The outside of the building looked old and scary, but the inside was actually quite nice. The speech and language therapist came to get me and told my friend she could use the computers, so she didn't get bored. Then I followed her up the stairs (through a door that said 'stay calm'!) and into the room. There was another woman who said she was an autism co-ordinator or something. I had to sit on a sofa (and got made to take off my jacket) while they sat on either side of the desk both facing me... slightly intimidating. At least the sofa was comfy I guess.

They said they'd read my file, including the stuff I'd written and given to my university psychiatrist, so I didn't have to give them what I'd written. Then they asked me loads and loads of questions- about my childhood, family, school, university, work, friends, sensory issues, social problems and so on. Managed to speak and answer most of them, even though my voice was very quiet. Also wasn't great at eye contact, which they noticed. When they asked me about the noise thing I said their computer was buzzing so they turned it off for me. They also noticed that I kept getting distracted when people walked past the door or the seagulls outside made a racket.

They were both very nice and after almost an hour and a half of questions the speech and language therapist said that she's pretty sure I have Asperger's. I said that I wasn't particularly surprised.

Have to go back on the 23rd July for the 'proper' assessment, but she said that it was just some more questions- it won't be so bad because I know what to expect now. Then after that if they give me a diagnosis she said they'd give me some help with coping strategies and social stuff. She wants me to bring my mum to the next appointment, so I will attempt to discuss it with her on Saturday (since I didn't tell her I had this appointment!).

Must say I'm actually quite relieved because now I can stop worrying about it and it explains a lot.

Very glad it's over though.

Sounds like it went well for you, then? I have been through some similar stuff myself. I am on the list to see the psychiatrist for a "formal" diagnosis. I guess I have a preliminary one now, maybe? The assessment process has been confusing for me because the people that I have seen have all felt that I most likely have Asperger's or HFA, but none of them seems able to make the diagnosis. I imagine that is why I have an appointment with the psychiatrist for a "formal" diagnosis.... Long story short, I have read a few posts on this forum now where people have expressed anxiety over that last visit to see the psychiatrist. I didn't really know why they were anxious until just recently. By the time you have been to all of these specialists (who cannot diagnose) you have started to accept that you have an ASD and you are starting to find relief in that knowledge and are maybe even able to understand yourself better than ever before. The problem is that the only thing that stands between you getting some help and you continuing to struggle with whatever your particular issues might be is totally dependent on what the psychiatrist will decided about you. It is somewhat subjective and that makes me (and apparently a lot of others who have been through assessment) very nervous. Having that formal diagnosis is a really big deal for some of us who could benefit from services or counseling. Hang in there! You are in good company because now we can all sit around and worry together!! Keep us posted on what happens!

Hope the formal part goes well! It was interesting reading anyway...

Good to hear you got a diagnosis
Could you go into more detail on the screen process? Mine is coming up soon and I would like to know what to expect.

What happened at the screening assessment (well- as much as I can remember):

My friend and I walked up to the door and I pressed the buzzer, like the sign on the door said and then waited for an answer. A woman asked who I was, so I told her and then opened the door. Then I signed the register before sitting down next to my friend. She brought out a magazine so I looked at it with her. After about 10 minutes the speech and language therapist came over, introduced herself as A and asked my name. She also asked if I wanted my friend to come with me, but I said no. She told my friend that it would take about an hour and a half before leading me away.

Then I followed A through several doors and up some metal stairs. At the top there were two doors, one after the other and the first one had a sign that said ‘stay calm’ on it- which I found a bit strange. After the second door we walked left along the corridor and then into a room on the left. There was another woman already sitting in front of the desk and A told me to sit down on the sofa. She went around the desk and sat behind it, while the other woman told me her name (which I can’t remember) and said she was an autism co-ordinator. They told me to take off my coat, so I did, and then I sat awkwardly on the sofa, clinging onto my bag.

A then said that the screening assessment would just involve them asking me lots of questions and wouldn’t have any psychometric tests or anything. She asked me to confirm my address and who had referred me. She also asked if I knew anything about Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome- I said that I’d done stuff at university and also worked for my local Autistic Society's playscheme. Then she said that they work together with mental health services, so they had read my file, including the stuff I had written for my uni psychiatrist. After that she asked me details of my gp, psychiatrist, and counsellor. Then she asked me about my family- who they were, how old they were and their jobs. When I mentioned about my brother having leukaemia, she looked at the other woman and said ‘oh, some trauma’ before asking me some more questions about it.

After she’d written down basic details, A asked me what I thought my current difficulties were- I must have paused for a bit, so she prompted me with some of what I’d written down. We talked a bit about my social problems (being really anxious around new people in particular) and then about sensory issues- noise sensitivity and tactile sensitivity. When she asked me about noises in the room that I could hear, I said that the computer was buzzing, so she turned it off for me. I also told her about not being able to stand velvet and corduroy material, so she asked if I had any problems with school uniform.

Then she asked about my childhood, what I was like at school- including problems at school, about pretend play, my birth, what I was like as a toddler, friends, secondary school, university, bullying, school subjects, and a lot of other things I can’t remember. When A asked me about the pretend play, she got all interested and started looking things up in a book and whispering to the other woman. But, once I’d said that I’d just copied other children pretending she said it was okay.

One of the last questions she asked was whether or not I’m clumsy- to which I said yes because I’m always walking into things and tripping over! At the end she asked if I’d told my mum anything and when I said no, A said it would be useful if I brought her to the next appointment- which is the ‘proper’ assessment. She also said that she was pretty sure that I had Asperger’s Syndrome and that she’d seen a lot of girls my age who were also very passive and never got diagnosed because they didn’t cause any problems.

lol I think you have it too. You wrote a whole paragraph on the layout of the office in details that don't pertain to my question.

Thank you for you're reply

I wonder what the deal with "pretend play" was.

Ya know? I think the deal with the pretend play is that "they" think that children with Asperger's don't have an imagination. I tend to both agree and simultaneously disagree with this idea. Why do I say this (since I am no doctor)? Well.... I think the issue is in what one considers to be "imaginative" in the first place. "They" (the doctors or therapists or whomever) think that if you have AS you shouldn't be able to pretend that something is something that it is not. For example, one shouldn't be able to pretend that a block of wood is a telephone because it is a block of wood and NOT a phone. I could come up with endless scenarios for play as a child, however I was never content to "pretend" that a block of wood was a telephone, for example. It wasn't that I didn't understand the concept that you could pretend that one thing is a substitute for another so much as it was that it "wasn't a phone" and "why would I pretend a block of wood is a phone when I can seek out an old phone and play with it'. In a pinch, I could drum up something to represent a phone if my imaginative play called for such a thing, but I was much more inclined to just go and take the real phone off the wall in the kitchen and play with the thing (never mind the trouble I would get into... I needed a phone, after all ). Personally, I think it has more to do with not wanting to pretend than it does with not being able to. Does this sound familiar to anyone else??

Yeah- the pretend play was because I said I played 'house' in like primary 1 (age 4/5)- but I was just doing what the other girls told me to, like put the baby over there and make some tea. I knew fine well that it was a plastic doll and there was nothing but air in the teapot, but I just copied what everyone else did so I could play with them.

I also liked 'playing' with playmobil- setting up hospitals, houses and vets for hours. But, if my younger brothers tried to join in and move the people around I would get really annoyed. All I wanted to do was set up everything and I couldn't understand why they wanted to play with it and mess it up.

I used to set up stuff all the time, so I TOTALLY know what you are talking about. I relate to the stuff about setting up the playmobil guys and stuff like that. I hated it when people wanted to play with my "sets". I also used to spend time setting up other things for play. That is when I would end up losing the interest of anyone who was trying to play with me. For example, I recall one time the girl up the street and I had this idea that it would be fun to pretend like my backyard was a little town. I already had a play house so why not a whole town? Right? At any rate, I recall spending a few days setting up that stupid town so that "we" could play. I honestly didn't really notice that my little friend had taken off!! I drew up an plan for this town and then I began setting out stakes in the grass to lay out all of the roads. I snagged my mom's best yarn (of course) and began linking all of the stakes to create little roads and "areas" that were designated places like the grocery store and stuff like that. It was all pretty cool, really. I even made signs for the streets and "areas" that were to represent buildings. When I went to collect this "friend" a few days later when the town was all finished..... she didn't want to play town anymore!! Imagine that????

Oh yeah... I was probably in about the 1st grade... maybe 2nd when I built the "town". It wasn't really uncommon for me to do things like that. I used to spend days turning parts of the inside of my house into a hospital or an office.... all sorts of stuff. I never could find anyone who wanted to set up stuff with me and it was anticlimactic when I would finish because I didn't know "how" to play with the stuff half the time! I just knew I had a very realistic looking scene when I was finished.