Autism assessment for girls at Evelina

[lilmrschatty]

I've just found out that my little girl has been referred to the Evelina for an ASD assessment. Has anyone been recently? Are they good at assessing girls? Would appreciate anything you can tell me about the process thanks.

Do you live in Lambeth/Southwark or is this a referral to a tertiary referral centre?

No we don't live in London, there isn't anywhere that does the assessment in our area so this is where we have been sent.

My son was diagnosed there at the neurodisability department. They were really good. If it's like his there is a big team of ed psychs/speech and language people/child psychiatrists so you feel surely 6 people can't all be wrong. Particularly impressed that they asked us back again to try and tease out his learning difficulties/visual processing disorder.

I can’t help then, I’m sorry. My son is being diagnosed by the Evelina team, but in the community because of where we live. Thus far the doctors have been great but the admin is awful.

Thanks that's interesting. It's taken so long to get to this point now I'm worrying that she will mask through the assessment and won't get a diagnosis!

I think we all have the same worry. It is worth mentioning if she’s good at masking. But you also have to trust that the doctors are experts and they know how to see past and through it.

If it reassures you, my son is great at masking. It took all of 15 minutes with the community paediatrician from the Evelina for his referral for full assessment to be deemed necessary. It took her about another 15 minutes to work out that I’m also autistic. And I’m an adult (female) who masks extremely well.