Can someone tell me what happens in a test for Aspergers Syndrome?

Question

Can someone tell me what happens in a test for Aspergers Syndrome?

Answer 1

It depends on who there testing and there age.

For my son (5 years old) it involved two assessments at the child development centre, which included behavioural pattens, interaction with other people, physio and ot assessments as well as one at school.

One thing you have got to ask is what assessment tools and diagnosis criteria they are using, this is Aspergers is the latest buzz word in learning difficulties and I have found if there not to sure what is wrong they WILL give a diagnosis of Aspergers just to give a label.

If you want to know more stuff about Aspergers I wouldrecommendd reading work by TonyAtwoodd, and in Rotherham the use Lorna Wing's Triade of Impediment to aid there diagnoses.

Hope this helps, Cheers Phil

Answer 2

The test materials used can vary according to the professional that you visit and how they generally format their testing range. There are a number of tests outside of the rating scales used for the identification of Asperger syndrome that can be useful in helping to confirm the diagnosis further. For example those people with difficulties lying along the spectrum are often affected by anxiety especially in visual based tasks leaving their delayed recall as being better (on a second visit) once the worry around the task disappears. Difficulties in shifting attention from one thing to another can also be a factor of ASD and so an attention shifting test may also be employed. Measures of attention via continuous performance testing can also be useful, with fine motor assessments tapping into the motor weaknesses often associated with this difficulty.

Research is showing us that we are basically looking at executive function weaknesses in ASD, so auditory memory testing may also be added to this battery (individuals with ASD are often good at rote tasks like digit span), if there is no Dyslexia, they could be hyperlexic (able to read well but have difficulties understanding what they read), literacy tests may also back up a diagnosis therefore. Traditional I.Q. testing and comparisons of Verbal and Performance quotients can also highlight an ASD difficulty as well as helping to categorize it in order to ascertain whether it is straight forward Autism, Asperger, high functioning Autism or a milder overlapping ASD accompanying another disorder such as AD/HD. A good psychologist will take all of these findings into consideration, as well as the behavioural representation of the individual, obtained from rating scales and observation.

Picture sequencing tests may also help with revealing those people who may have problems predicting in social situations, with several subsections of the language testing range available useful in looking how literally people are interpreting language, how they understand double meanings and formulate sentences. All good stuff!

Answer 3

basically-they rate different feeling and behaviors--ask questions about interacting with others