ADHD and ASC in Children and Adolescents
in Children and Adolescents
At Oasis Psychological Services we use "gold standard" assessment tools and follow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guidelines to support our comprehensive Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnostic process.
We specialise in the following services:
Pre-Diagnostic Assessment Service
You may have concerns about your child's social and emotional development for some time. Or maybe their school teachers have recently raised concerns about your child's difficulties with their peers, or their short attention span, difficulties concentrating and so on.
You may be left feeling confused about the nature of your child’s difficulties and do not know what the best way forward is in order to support his needs. We know how this may feel as we talk everyday to families who are unsure of whether their child is presenting with features of ASC or ADHD, or both. Or maybe you wonder if anxiety, depression and very low self-esteem issues may be at the root cause of their difficulties.
That's why we have created a pre-diagnostic service in order to help you and your child reach some answers. You and your child will be offered a face to face appointment with one of our Clinical Psychologists at out Ashford Clinic. They will go through a detailed developmental history and current difficulties. We will also screen for ASC, ADHD, Anxiety Disorders and Depression and we will gather information from your child' school in order to gain a full understanding of how they function in their daily life. At the end of the pre-diagnostic assessment we will be able to advice you whether your child requires further specialist assessments (ASC/ADHD) or there are other considerations that may explain their difficulties and therefore, we will be able to indicate the most appropriate therapeutic treatment modality.
Full Diagnostic Assessment Service
An in-depth diagnostic assessment can be required without the initial consultation when there is enough evidence from both home and school environments.
We follow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) standard guidelines for all our assessments.
ASD Assessment Process
Before the Assessment
Parents/carers will be asked to fill in some questionnaires and scales prior to the assessment. School staff are very important in helping us to understand how your child/young person functions in their school life.
Therefore, with your permission we will also send the teacher and/or SENCo some questionnaires to fill in and seek additional information about your child’s strengths and weaknesses.
What Will Happen during the Assessment?
The assessment clinics are held at Oasis Psychological Services consulting room in Ashford. We are happy to provide home visits if this is felt to be more appropriate to your child’s needs.
Dr Floriana Reinikis, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, and Jan Mount, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, are very experienced in assessing, diagnosing and working with children and young people with ASD in the NHS and independent practice. Floriana has been working in the NHS and private practice for almost 20 years and Jan for over 35 years. Floriana and Jan are boht trained in the relevant diagnostic tools (ADI-R, 3Di, ADOS-2). They also have current DBS clearance.
Floriana meets with the parents/carers to complete the ADI-R, a detailed developmental history used to assess ASD in both children and adults. This session can take about 2 hours.
Jan meets separately with the child/young person to carry out the ADOS-2, which is a semi-structured, standardised assessment of communication, social interaction, play and restrictive and repetitive behaviours. This takes about 90 minutes.
What Happens After the Assessment?
Parents/carers and the child/young person will be offered a 1-hour follow-up appointment with Dr Reinikis within 2-3 weeks from the assessment session to share the assessments’ outcomes and conclusions and discuss the recommendations.
Most of the times it is possible to reach a definite conclusion about whether a child/young person has autism spectrum disorder. Sometime individuals show the full set of traits and meet the criteria for a diagnosis.
Other times, they show only some features of autism, or there is little current impact on their daily functioning. In such cases, it is useful to describe their difficulty in social communication without giving a formal diagnosis.
A full report is given at the follow-up appointment.
Treatment Options for ASD and ADHD
Children and young people with ASD and ADHD may present with additional psychological difficulties, such has anxiety, low mood, social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, emotional dysregulation, behavioural difficulties and so on.
As every person and family are unique, at Oasis Psychological Services we aim to provide a flexible yet individualised treatment approach that works best for you and your child/young person. This may include one or more of the following:
ADHD Assessment Process
Before the Assessment
Parents/carers will be asked to fill in some questionnaires and scales prior to the assessment. School staff are very important in helping us to understand how your child/young person functions in their school life.
Therefore, with your permission we will also send the teacher and/or SENCo some questionnaires to fill in and seek additional information about your child’s strengths and weaknesses.
What Will Happen during the Assessment?
The assessment clinics are at Oasis Psychological Services consulting room in Ashford.
A Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist meets with the child/young person and the parents/carers for a specialist assessment, which will include:
- A physical examination
- A series of interview with the child/young person and the parent/carer
- Interviews, reports or questionnaires from teachers.
At the end of the assessment, the Consultant Psychiatrist will discuss with the parents/carers and child/young person the outcomes and recommendations and possible diagnosis when full criteria are met.
A full report will be sent to the parents/carers within two weeks of the initial assessment.
What Happens After the Assessment?
Medication and psychological support for the young person and the family are mostly recommended for managing ADHD.
The Consultant Psychiatrist will discuss the option of medication in details with you and your child and explain the implications and guidelines for follow-ups.
Other treatment options recommended include Talking Therapies, such as CBT, parenting advice and school support. Oasis Psychological Services are happy to provide these and formulate the best treatment package for you and your child.