Diagnosis and Assessment of an ASD

The C.H.A.T. – (Checklist for autism in toddlers) health visitor checklist can be used to assess the severity of an ASD that a child may be experiencing. There are many diagnostic methods which may lead professionals to interpret an ASD subsequent to initial indicators manifested as challenging behaviour. D.I.S.C.O. (Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders) is the main ASD analysing method assessment given to children in the Birmingham area, it can be targeted from pre-school age through to adulthood and includes a semi-structured interview with parents.

I have also been using a behavioural approach to analyse challenging behaviour including aspects relating to the time of day, sensory modulation and levels of arousal. Assessment of the child is required to plan effective teaching strategies and interventions solving challenging behaviour. The type of information gained from observations of the child include expressive ability, percentage of time on task, understanding of adult language and responses, fine and gross motor skills and the nature of interaction with other pupils. Other areas include social and cognitive levels of play, problem-solving skills, activities that the pupil seems to enjoy and situations which lead to distress and anxiety. I have adopted strategies for staff to clarify their spoken instructions and adopted a flexible timetable where children can work in groups or separately at times dependent upon their mood and state of behaviour.

We write down all incidents in our ABC (Antecedent, Behaviour, Cause) book which forms evidence over time to see patterns of behaviour of all children in the class and can be used to find reoccurring disruptive incidents. I lead a daily classroom staff meeting every morning and a de-brief every evening after school in which as a team we discuss the incidents occurred and how to negotiate them better or manage them out next time.

Daily behaviour logs for specific children have been used over 2 week periods in the past to log events that led up to and followed incidents. Home/school diaries are a further communication and record log which can be used retrospectively to analyse patterns of behaviour over time. Children that are less autistic and more self aware benefit from simple empathy based social skill workshops. These sessions highlight what others perceive as challenging behaviour, with a view to the child better managing their own behaviour.