Autism assessment

[Nogodsnomasters]

My ds who will turn 4 in Sept has his appointment to be assessed for autism on 11th Sept. They've said they will send a form in the post that his pre school teacher needs to fill in and that we will need to fill in forms ourselves at the appointment but no other information about what will happen.

Can anyone shed some light on what the appointment involves and how long it takes? For background info ds is appearing high functioning for the most part, has a great vocabulary and was referred by his pre school in January after monitoring him for 4 months.

Many thanks

Anyone?

At my daughters assessment she spent time with a clinical psychologist playing so that they could get a sense of her while I answered questions with another staff member. These were about my specific concernes, medical history, family history etc. Autism diagnosis is not an exact science. Everyone has some autistic traits a diagnosis is only appropriate where the traits interfere significantly with "normal" functioning. Also 4 is quite young as most young children exhibit alot of autistic traits, lacking empathy and understanding of others, repeating behaviours over and over, rigid thinking so you assent could take a little longer as my dd was 9.

Is it an ADOS assessment ? We had an Ados and it was an hour of specific assessments to check his responses, eye Contact , communication etc .

Then another hour parent interview when we answered questions ,birth history. Friendships, concerns etc. The school and myself filled in a questionnaire on him .