Diagnosis & Assessment

"It does not have to be about tragedy or pain or loss. Bearing an autistic child is not losing that child. It's gaining a very special new son or daughter"
- Jasmine Lee O'Neill, A mute autistic savant who is a poet, writer, illustrator and musician.

As yet, there are no medical tests to diagnose autism. An accurate diagnosis must be made on observation of the child's communication, behaviour and development levels. It has been proven worldwide that early, accurate diagnosis coupled with early, intensive intervention increases the child's opportunity for positive development and success.

At this moment in time in Ireland, there are a number of ways to seek a diagnosis/assessment. Typically you will have taken your child to your local GP, who quite often will refer your child for a hearing test . This is the most obvious thing to do if you report that your child for instance, is blanking you or not responding to loud noises etc.

Assuming the hearing test comes back clear, you will then most likely be refered to a local Health Board team or to a Developemental Paediatrician who may then in turn refer you to the Local Health Board multi-disciplinary team.

The multi-disciplinary team should at least consist of a Clinical Psychologist, an Educational Psychologist, a Speech and Language Therapist and an Occupational Therapist. The team may also have the services of a Psychiatrist and a Social Worker but these are not essential for the diagnostic and asessment process .

In our experience the Health Board teams tend to concentrate on Diagnosis only so they will rarely have an Educational Psychologist to assess your Child's educational needs as part ot their team.

The other problem you will encounter is that NEPS (National Educational Psychology Service) run by the Department of Education and Science, only deals at the moment with children who are in school currently. This of course means that there is no provision provided by the State for a 3 year year old with a diagnosis of Autism to have their educational needs assessed by an Educational Psychologist. This in fact means that they have to go to school and fail, before the proper assessment steps are taken by NEPS

Going back to the Diagnosis process,  it has been our experience that:

1. Not all counties have a Multi-Disciplinary Team
2. Those counties that do have a team, frequently do not have all the essential members of staff in place
3. All counties have long waiting lists
4. It is not uncommon that the process - from being referred to the team where it exists, to the end result of getting a diagnosis - can take 18 months to 2 years or longer. Indeed we are aware of one case where a woman who's child had been on a waiting list for 18 months rang up her local "team" to find out if there was any news, only to be told that the "team" had not had a Psychologist for over a year!

All of the above is a disgrace, particularly given that early and intensive intervention is essential to your child's chance to achieve their full potential. Needless to say the way the services work in this country is: 'No Diagnosis? No Service' and also without a proper Educational Assessment, your child will be forced to take the first Educational placement offered to them, regardless of whether that placement is appropriate to his or her needs.

Faced by the dilemmas above, many parents choose to go privately to have their children diagnosed and assessed, but this is expensive and not all families can afford it. Where families are going the private route, they should be sure to check with their Health Insurance provider to see what elements of the process the Insurer might cover and also to get a Med 1 Form from the Revenue at www.revenue.ie to claim tax relief against the various procedures. Please note that you cannot claim tax relief on any asessment that your Health Insurance provider has refunded you for.

IAA have long held the view that the situation around Diagnosis and Assessment is a complete mess and whilst we are told that in 2 years time the HSE will be rolling out a programme to ensure there are Multi Disciplinary Teams in place in all counties, this is of no use to those children who are currently sitting on waiting lists nor for those looking for a Diagnosis in the next 2 years .

Subsequently the IAA had decided to set up our own Diagnostic and Assessment Centre known as the Solas Centre. For more details on the Centre please go to the Solas Centre page on this website.