ADI-R

[empmalswa]

We are due to do this for DS next week and just wondered if anyone knows what it entails? Clinic has said it will take a couple of hours to do. Feeling slightly overwhelmed at the thought of it all :(

ADI-R involves answering lots of questions about how your child interacts/interacted with you, with peers, behaviour at school, types of interests and activities attended when they were young, around say first year of primary school agewise. it's not difficult but it can take quite a while.

The questions are designed to show if a child has presented with autism since a very young age. If you have any other reports, take those along as well as any notes with developmental blips if any and any of your own observations of your child's differences to their peers.

You'll be unlikely to have a diagnosis (dx) on the day, some do but most have to wait until the ADI-R test has been scored and maybe other tests have been done and a team of professionals have had their input, so a dx can take months.

Thanks, I know what it's for, just wondered what kind of thing we would be asked.

We do get a diagnosis same day.

I will have to think about the behaviour around age 4/5 then?

All I can tell you is our own experience. That's what age group the questions for our ADI-R assessment was based on.

It was very difficult to do in our instance as I had to think back 20 years! We had been on the NHS waiting list for over 18 months, I took a cancelled appt with 3 days' notice, I didn't even know what the assessment would entail, I was expecting maybe ADOS and lots of questions for dc, not ADI-R and most questions for me.

You'll be fine, the questions aren't difficult, it just takes a long time. Some I really didn't know the answer to and said so.
This gives the different sections of the test.
www.hogrefe.co.uk/shop/autism-diagnostic-interview-revised.html

Thank you for that link, very interesting, will have a good read through it.