Diagnosis

Diagnosis of Autism needs careful evaluation of the development of the individual.

Child Development: It is the journey that a child hat to go through to become an independent adult. Each child is unique and therefore is the journey child takes. Developmental milestones give a rough estimate of the pace of this journey. As a proud parent, you will be watching your child’s development. It is important not to worry too much about some variations in achievement of mile stone as this can be perfectly normal. However, as a parent you should act, if you notice any significant delay in many mile stones in your child’d development.

More importantly, if you see your child loosing the skills she or he had already acquired (It is called Regression of skills) you should act immediately.

An appropriate action, if you see any of the above is to consult a developmental paediatrician (a child specialist with skills in assessing the development of a child). When you see the doctor, please remember the doctor would want to hear about the development of the child from birth (actually even before birth – pregnancy, mother’s health during pregnancy, family details including some details about other children if you have any).A good developmental history will show if there have been variations in the development of social skills, communication and imagination.

While it is relatively easy to gather this information for young children, it becomes increasingly difficult as the individual ages. In an adult, taking the developmental history often would include gathering information from a variety of sources to get a clear picture of the development.

Direct Assessment
In addition, the individual needs to be assessed directly. The assessment can be structured using instruments such as Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) or unstructured interview by an experienced professional. To be able to do this effectively the professional would need training specifically in the assessment of autism.

If you are a professional trying to gather more information on the range of rating scales / assessment schedules, please see the page – Checklists and Rating Scales.

7 thoughts on “Diagnosis

    1. Thanks Priya. Please see the information below.

      Speech Therapy
      Speech and language therapy: the two centers mentioned below seem to offer input ( I have not had any direct contact with these centers though)

      Samvad Institute, near Hebbal, Bangalore seems to offer speech assessment and interventions. Not sure, how much expertise they have on supporting children with ASD. Please see their web site for more details. http://www.samvaadinstitute.org. This is reasonably close to where you are.

      Deall program headed by Dr. Prathibha Karanth who is a speech and language therapist seems to offer communication interventions for children with ASD. http://www.communicationdeall.org/prathibha.htm
      This is probably the most autism specific communication support. This however may not be close to your place.
      Sackhumvit Trust: The trust has a Bangalore based child developmental centres (Malleswaram and New BEL road) led by developmental paediatricians. Centre for Child Development and Disabilities has a separate web site as well. It might be worth checking there as well. This is at a reasonable distance to you.

      I have to say that I do not have direct knowledge of these services. I have heard about these through my personal contacts or came across these in the internet. Please use your judgement in accepting services from the one you eventually choose.
      Could you please send me your experience of using any service for autism in Bangalore as feedback from people like yourselves are important to build up sign posting. Let me know how you get on.

      satheesh

  1. Balu

    DEAR SIR MY IS SUFFERING FROM AUTISM .He is 3.1 years old.We are staying in bommanhalli in banaglore.Pls tell me near to my area in bangalore sir

    1. Dear Balu
      Bommanahalli is not too far from NIMHANS. Please take your child for an initial assessment in the Child Psychiatry Department there. They will be able to guide you to the right people after the assessment.
      thanks
      satheesh

  2. Asha

    My son is aged 8 years and he is undergoing ABA since he was diagnosed at 2 years. I am looking to get a re-assessment done. Please advice.

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