- Joined
- Jul 13, 2020
- Messages
- 1,376
- Reaction score
- 1,864
- Points
- 1,036
- Psychologist
I'm interested in how people succinctly communicate findings, provide psychoeducation regarding autism, and express the need for evidence-based interventions.
You just diagnosed someone with autism. What is your script for that like?
- Thread starter borne_before
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,085
- Reaction score
- 960
- Points
- 5,511
- Psychologist
appreciate the question and looking forward to hearing from others for any new ideas / ways of phrasing things.
The general flow for me (when talking with families about a child at least) are-
1. I check in regarding my observations to get parent aligned with my thoguth process and feel like i actually got to know their child well in a relatively short period of time (like, "so I noticed xyz here, which sounds like what xyz you've described at home, and it seems like (some other related thing); do you think that's accurate?") - before I get into the diagnosis part; includes commentary about their strengths and endearing qualities here too in part to reassure parent I'm looking at the whole kid / full picture
2. explain the types of things we look for with respect to the question of ASD in relation to their developmental vs chronological age if there is a disparity (age equivalents on cognitive/developmental testing is helpful for communicating that with parents) (and other pertinent info such as uneven cognitive or language skills, culture and history, any other diagnoses), and the social communication that I would expect to see in a more typically developing child of same developmental level (especially nonverbal communication and social strategies in kids with language disorder/delay)
3. pull in the observations and how they were similar/different than point 2 which eventually leads into the confirmation of the diagnosis.
Throughout that i find myself referencing learning styles and "double edged sword" a lot (e.g., the sticky attention can get in the way of learning, but when harnessed in the right direction can really facilitate learning and engagement)
The rest really varies from there- from there the rest is tailored to where the parent/family/client is at regarding whether we end up saying yes/no to a dx which is always a question I ask in evals; rec'd some good guidance years ago from someone at UC San Diego where they are/were using a "SPIRIT" model to tailor feedback depending on the emotional state of the family (overwhelmed, zealous or inquisitive, reluctant or distrustful, relieved and ready, or sad/grieving).
I just did a quick search and as far as I can tell there is nothing published on this framework yet outside of a recent dissertation (A Quasi-experimental Evaluation of the SPIRIT Toolkit for Facilitating Autism Diagnostic Feedback with Caregivers NC State University, defended April 2025) but you might be interested to check it out - the dissertation is available via NCSU's collection of dissertations. NC State Repository :: Home This visual "cheat sheet" reminder for planning feedback is one of the appendices in the dissertation and looks like there are some other nice ones too.
The general flow for me (when talking with families about a child at least) are-
1. I check in regarding my observations to get parent aligned with my thoguth process and feel like i actually got to know their child well in a relatively short period of time (like, "so I noticed xyz here, which sounds like what xyz you've described at home, and it seems like (some other related thing); do you think that's accurate?") - before I get into the diagnosis part; includes commentary about their strengths and endearing qualities here too in part to reassure parent I'm looking at the whole kid / full picture
2. explain the types of things we look for with respect to the question of ASD in relation to their developmental vs chronological age if there is a disparity (age equivalents on cognitive/developmental testing is helpful for communicating that with parents) (and other pertinent info such as uneven cognitive or language skills, culture and history, any other diagnoses), and the social communication that I would expect to see in a more typically developing child of same developmental level (especially nonverbal communication and social strategies in kids with language disorder/delay)
3. pull in the observations and how they were similar/different than point 2 which eventually leads into the confirmation of the diagnosis.
Throughout that i find myself referencing learning styles and "double edged sword" a lot (e.g., the sticky attention can get in the way of learning, but when harnessed in the right direction can really facilitate learning and engagement)
The rest really varies from there- from there the rest is tailored to where the parent/family/client is at regarding whether we end up saying yes/no to a dx which is always a question I ask in evals; rec'd some good guidance years ago from someone at UC San Diego where they are/were using a "SPIRIT" model to tailor feedback depending on the emotional state of the family (overwhelmed, zealous or inquisitive, reluctant or distrustful, relieved and ready, or sad/grieving).
I just did a quick search and as far as I can tell there is nothing published on this framework yet outside of a recent dissertation (A Quasi-experimental Evaluation of the SPIRIT Toolkit for Facilitating Autism Diagnostic Feedback with Caregivers NC State University, defended April 2025) but you might be interested to check it out - the dissertation is available via NCSU's collection of dissertations. NC State Repository :: Home This visual "cheat sheet" reminder for planning feedback is one of the appendices in the dissertation and looks like there are some other nice ones too.
