Comprehensive Autism Assessments for Adults 

If you are scrolling through my website it's probably because you are wondering if you should pursue a late-identification assessment.

 

 Perhaps you have received feedback from friends, family or colleagues that has left you with some questions about your way of engaging with the world or you feel, with new-found information about autism, that some struggles you've had previously might actually be related to being autistic. 

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What are some common features of Autism?

 

Every Autistic person is different, just like every individual is different.  There isn’t one set of behaviours that define Autism.  Similarly, just because someone has one or two traits that are comparable to autism, this doesn’t mean that they are autistic.

 

Some common indicators of autism might include:

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• Social Communication – difficulties with ‘reading’ others.  For example, understanding facial expressions, understanding jokes or sentences with underlying meanings such as sarcasm. Difficulties with socially expected interactions such as maintaining eye contact.

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• Social Interaction - may not be aware of social expectations such as being in someone else’s personal space, or even if there is understanding, often social interactions feel frivolous, tiring or redundant due to social expectations. As a result this may result in behaviour that appears to be rude or insensitive without meaning to or may find it hard to form and maintain friendships or often feeling on the 'outside looking in' on relationships or friendship groups. 

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• Routines and Repetitive Behaviours – often autistic people prefer a routine and can be distressed if this is altered without warning. This is often due to structure and routines helping to minimise anxiety, feelings of being out of control or prevent overwhelm. 

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• Sensory Processing – may experience over or under sensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells, light, colours, temperatures or pain. Autistic people may find certain background sounds unbearably loud or distracting (hypersensitive), or they may dress inappropriately for cold weather (hyposensitive), for example.  Some sensory experiences can cause anxiety or even physical pain to the individual.