Did my autism assessment go wrong?

[Glittarain]

I recently had an autism assessment under right to choose. I feel I probably don't have it. Its more of a tick box thing because of other things.

I'm not sure if it was done in right way there was about 8 tick box forms I had to do each with around 50-90 questions each. You have to tick a box for what answer fits you. But alot of them didn't fit me but I was forced to tick something. So the answers don't show a true me. I said this to the person doing doing the assessment and she said there was several options for the answer. Which there was but they didn't fit me.

She asked me a bit about school about going from primary to secondary. How did I cope with the change I said I went to a sen school the primary and secondary were one school. I just moved rooms with the same peers we stayed in the same class for most lessons apart from things like PE but that was the same as primary the only change was the tutor teacher and I already knew her. She said ah ok then asked the question again the reason I found it hard to answer is because i wouldn't have had the big change that children in mainstream have wheh goung from primary to secondary.

She didn't ask about my learning difficulties maybe it wasn't relivent I'm not sure.

I had also written about how when i was a teenager I used to sit on the floor behinde the teachers desk and avoid everyone. When i was told to move because lesson was starting i would move my chair right back so I was away from people as much as I could be. I didn't talk for a whole school year if I was asked a question I would only ever say yes,no if it was an open question I would say don't know even if it didn't make sense. I wasn't asked about that either. Maybe it wasn't relivent either. But when I mentioned it at the end of the assessment she did have a brief shock face.

Does that seem right?

I think on line is very different. From real life. In real life I wouldn't Talk unless someone Talks to me and then I would only answer what they asked. Nothing more.

I don't know it could be that there needs to be other things as well. It could come under social anxiety which is another possibility

Do you think you have learning disabilities?

Online conversations do count for the purposes of the autism assessment, as the questions are about how you communicate, and that doesn't necessarily mean face-to-face. I'm diagnosed with AuDHD. From how you've talked about the assessment and where you've found things confusing, etc it would not surprise me at all if they confirm you have Autism.

I had a similar experience with the questionnaire but just answered the best I could. It helped that my DH had already been diagnosed and assessed, so he was able to support me in processing the questions and talked about his own experience of the assessment with me. Not everything in the questionnaire fits who you are, and that's okay, as everyone with Autism is different and has different challenges. E.g. my DC is autistic and has a completely different set of needs from me, and sounds very similar to you in how they approach conversations, even with people they know well. They hate talking to people!

Personally for me I don't agree. Because on line I don't have to answer right away I can have time to think what to say. I don't have to do the quick to and throw.of conversation. I don't have to worry about people's facial expressions or tone of voice. I don't have to worry about how my voice sounds. I can leave a thread choose not to answer. On line i dont have to feel like there's knoted up feeling inside.i don't have to worry. I do have some of them feelings on line but much less and I can block them out i can escape I'm not trapped.

In real life I'm completely different because I have to worry about all the above things I mentioned and more its just hard to fully explain. In real life it can he different situations different surroundings different people there's not an arms length type thing like there is on line. On line isn't my daily evety day life i have done some questionable things in real life just to avoid being around people and having to communicate or be in that place.

I don't think my last paragraph makes much sense im finding it hard to explain.

I do have learning difficulties not disabilitys.

Your answers to these questions are strongly suggestive of very rigid thinking, OP. The way you answer them suggests some ND.

Do you mean how I said my answers about them on here?

It doesn't sound like my assessment at all. I didn't tick any boxes, just chatted to the guy, and when I brought stuff up he would explain how that was relevant to another question he had previously asked. And he told me at the end that I did have autism, I didn't have to wait for results, he was the assessor so he assessed me. NGL I'm a very obvious case but I was a late diagnosis because my mum is autistic as didn't know it so I seemed normal to her.

It sounds like the person you saw isn't actually the assessor, just some cheaper person that then passes it onto the assessor to read and mark. Rather than paying for the assessor to sit and talk to you for hours.

Yes, but also the way you couldn’t find a ‘best fit’ answer.

Also, the fact that, at school, you could only reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to questions. If I was filling out an autism questionnaire for one of my pupils, this would be an example to include.

I get what your saying thats kind of my point I could show the questions on here and say what my thinking /my situation is i don't have that option on the tick boxes im forced to tick something that doesn't fit me even closely and the person reading it won't know that its not a correct answer for me.

I don't even know if the school thing is relivent as it was so long ago. It might just feel like a big thing to me but it actually isn't.

Ok say its rigid a few people have said that now so i accept that. But You can see that from what i said about the questions. But the people looking at the form can't see that all they can see is what I have been forced to tick and far as they are concerned it correct.

@Glittarain You mentioned autism and social anxiety. It is also possible that you are schizoid (or not, of course!). I just wanted to mention it because it is not as well known as autism. It is characterized by severe social impairment but later onset (age 11+). No sensory issues, no special interests.

I understand exactly what you’re saying.

I had to do the same for my daughter and so many times I just didn’t know how she’d be in that scenario because it either had never happened or because it’s hard to predict on any given day or situation there is a variability. That’s normal and true for most people I’d think.

I did raise this and they said the amount of questions (like you said loads of of them) identify a pattern or a tendency, or indeed a spectrum.

It’s not taken as “person ticked box c for x question therefore they’re definitely autistic”. But the process allows the assessor to get a feel for where a person sits on a range of things. No one response is an indicator in itself. It’s the overall if that makes sense.

She said because I don't have anyone to answer the childhood stuff or an adult alternative there has to be a meeting to discuss it.

I don't understand any of your post 😭. Could you say it in a simple way please?

I completely understand what you are saying about the tick boxes. I've not done an autism assessment but whenever I have done those questionnaires where the question is would you do a,b,c or d, I'm nearly always left thinking "e" which isn't anything like the options given.

It's different when a question is "how often do you do ...?" and the boxes are a range from never to always.

Not the same thing but I remember having to do a tick box questionnaire for some kind off sleep disorder but it was questions that didn't fit like falling asleep while reading and driving and some other activities which I don't do so put no as obviously i don't because i don't do then things my score came back completely normal because they would off took it as no I don't fall asleep during these activities

But you just put "never true" for those and that's accurate I think? I do sympathise as also find tick box options frustrating, but I don't think these would skew any result.

@Glittarain Apologies, my post has nothing to do with the autism assessment / tick-boxes. It was a more general comment. You say you do not have conversations with people at all, beyond answering questions. There are several conditions which can explain this. You mentioned autism and social anxiety. Both are well known and usually the first thing people think of. Another possibility is schizoid personality disorder. SPD is not well known, so people don't usually think of it. For this reason, I wanted to mention it, just in case you had never heard of it. It may not apply to you at all, it is just another possibility.

Yes exactly so can the results be trusted either way? Surely its a problem

I get where you are coming from OP. I took was a bit frustrated by the tick box nature of ADHD and autism assessments for my daughter. Plus she had different answers to me and her dad, and I still don't really know if that was her being dramatic or is being unobservant. At first it just felt like the diagnosis was just repeating back what we had told them, and the questions were so subjective and lacking in nuance that that felt odd. Eg whether you do something "frequently" or "rarely" - when you don't really know what a normal amount is, or whether things are more difficult or easier than for other people. That's what you want the diagnosis to answer!

But there are A LOT of questions, and some will be relevant, and when we had the parent feedback it was clear that they'd observed a lot of things themselves in the interview with DD. Including how annoyed she was with the questions! Some of the things mentioned are becoming more apparent as DD gets older. So I think the questions are only part of the picture.

Why were you referred for the assessment? What company did the assessment?

If you went to a SEN school for both primary and secondary your learning difficulties must have quite a significant impact on you. An autism assessment looks at what else might explain the traits displayed by the person and rules out any other causes. So your traits might be a result of your learning difficulties for example and not actually for the criteria for an autism diagnosis. It is possible to have both of course and your communication style does suggest you would meet the criteria for communication issues.

Why do you think you don’t have autism?

I was diagnosed 18 months ago and can relate to some of what you have said.

Ironically the questions are poorly designed for autistic thinking, and your difficulty alone in answering them could point to being ND. They don't give enough information about the scenarios to make a proper judgement.

Like would you prefer to go to the theatre or to a party?

Well now, to see what at the theatre? A loud musical or a quieter play? Which theatre? And whose party is it, will I know people there? How busy would it be? Etc

OP- did you post a few months ago because you were trying to find out why you'd be sent to a SEN school?