Autism Testing: How Milestones Provides Clinical Clarity & A Path Forward—Without the Wait
The “Waitlist” Reality Check
You suspect your child sees the world differently. You want answers now. But when you call the major hospitals in Jacksonville, you hear: “Our next opening is in 14 months.”
A year is a lifetime in a child’s development. At Milestones Child Psychology, we bypass the institutional bureaucracy to provide comprehensive evaluations and autism testing with a typical turnaround of just 3 weeks.
The Gold Standard: What is the ADOS-2?
in our autism testing, we use the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd Edition (ADOS-2), because it is the autism testing “Gold Standard” instrument used by research leading medical providers and hospitals globally. It is a play-based autism testing assessment that allows us to observe:
- Social Reciprocity: Does your child initiate interaction?
- Sensory Processing: Are they seeking deep pressure or avoiding textures?
- Restricted Interests: Is their conversation hyper-focused on one topic?
“Is it Autism? Or Is It…” (Differential Diagnosis)
We dig deeper during our autism testing protocol to differentiate ASD from other diagnoses such as:
- Social Anxiety: Is avoidance due to fear or lack of understanding?
- ADHD: Is lack of focus due to sensory overwhelm or executive dysfunction?
Your “Roadmap” Report
Our autism testing reports are “Portable Passports” for services in Florida:
- Medical: Authorization for ABA Therapy.
- School: Data supporting IEP and 504 eligibility under “Autism Spectrum Disorder.”
Beyond autism testing, you can find more tips, news, strategies, and resources, check out our blog: https://milestonespsych.net/blog/.
Autism Testing and Autism Spectrum Disorder – A Deeper Dive
A psychological evaluation / autism testing for Autism spectrum disorder, also referred to as ASD, is critical to determine the evidence-based therapies that will support your child’s communication skills, social skills, adaptive daily living skills, and attention regulation.
Early assessment and autism testing are about correctly identifying what challenges your child is experiencing in order to provide the correct therapeutic supports. By identifying Autism early, your child can access therapy at a time when their brain is more “plastic,” meaning treatment can potentially change or improve the connections in the brain.
After a period of treatment, you may conduct an additional psychological evaluation and see if they still qualify for the diagnosis or measure symptom improvement. Research shows that 3% to 25% of children diagnosed with ASD will show symptom improvement to the point that they no longer meet criteria for the diagnosis.
ASD is a neuro-developmental disorder, something that occurs in the early formation of the brain. Children with Autism Spectrum exhibit differences relating to other people socially. As infants, children with ASD are likely to experiences delays in language development or use language in ways that are atypical. For example, children may use their vocabulary for labeling items, or to meet their basic needs, but may not engage in social interactions or may not combine gestures or eye contact with verbalizations. Other children with Autism may have language skills but have trouble knowing how to start a conversation, or may recite scripts from favorite videos or TV shows, or may have trouble sustaining a conversation that is of mutual interest.
Children with ASD tend to have a different style of play. Children tend to play with parts of toys, such as spinning the wheels of toy cars or flicking the eye lashes to a baby doll. Children can also form attachments to hard objects as opposed to stuffed animals. Sometimes, these differences are confusing to parents / guardians because the child may show better communication and social skills with close family members within the home but not use those skills with others in public.
It is common for a child diagnosed with ASD to become fixated on topics that most other people would consider unusual and the children have trouble letting go of these topics. This can create an awkward feeling during a conversation. Many children become consumed with following rigid routines and a strong insistence on sameness. There is a tendency for many children to have difficulty with transitions, especially if they are not prepared ahead of time. This may lead to meltdown and tantrums.
Additionally, children with ASD may engage in motor activities that appear odd and purposeless. These may include hand flapping, rocking in place, jumping up and down repeatedly, pacing / running back and forth, or walking on tip toes. Some children are also interested in the parts of toys as opposed to the whole toy.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – 5th edition (DSM-5) defines Autism Spectrum Disorder as differences in two core areas: social-communication and repetitive behaviors. These differences in social communication and restricted and repetitive behaviors vary in degree of severity within children as well as across children, often making it difficult to fully understand why a diagnosis may have been given.
For example, a child may have mild repetitive behavioral tendencies, but have more pronounced social difficulties or vice versa. Alternatively, one child may have severe challenges across symptoms, and another child may present with only mild differences which do not significantly impact his or her ability to function in daily activities. For this reason, the diagnosis has been termed a “spectrum” in which characteristics can vary to any degree across the core domains (i.e., social communication and repetitive behaviors/interests).
Early evaluation and autism testing are crucial to accessing the appropriate early intervention. Unfortunately, certain therapeutic supports are only accessible after a diagnosis is determined by a comprehensive psychological evaluation.