Autism and 3DI

[Shebeen]

Hi, I have a 10 year old son currently being assessed for autism/aspergers. He has had various assessments over the last 3 1/2 years resulting in diagnoses of ADHD, dyspraxia and SID. The child psychiatrist is using a tool called the 3DI - The Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic interview which consists of 2 to 3 interviews with parents and a play assessment with the child. Does anyone have any experience with this method of assessment or any idea how reliable it is supposed to be? Many thanks.

Hi shebeen - my ds's psychaitrist has asked us to complete some 3di forms. I googled and couldn't find much out about it - certainly not a lot on here. I think it's an American assessment. Do they do a play assessment with older children?

DS2 (or rather we) went through the 3DI. Like you he ahd already ahd various assessments and had other pre existing dx.

It consisted of the psych asking us the standard q's (and there are loads) with a multiple choice answer... so for example it may of asked.... ds uses common hand gestures & you give responses something like always, often not very often or never.
The prych was very good at explaining each question and although the answers were multiple choice his psych took lots of additional notes and recorded any extra info that I wanted her to if i couldn't give a clear answer.
It is then apparently scored electronically and therefore should give an impartial score.

I think it is designed to be used as a supporting dx tool to clinical assessment and the other more common dx tools.

It was actually a very interesting questionnaire and really made ds2's areas of strengths & difficulty stand out.