How to Test for Autism
There is no blood test for autism and no brain scans that can definitely rule it in or rule it out. What practitioners look for when making a diagnosis of autism are developmental and behavioral signs of autism. Dr. James Coplan – who diagnosed Lucas – has an early language milestone scale that shows these signs. There are a few main tests that practitioners can do. Like a screening tool called the MCHAT that you can download for free. The MCHAT has around 23 questions you can answer for your child or client to assess their risk of autism. You can also look into the ADOS test for autism.
Autism Assessment
None of these tests, though, can give an absolute diagnosis. So, don’t think that if a child or client scores a certain way that it’s definitely autism. Or definitely not autism. I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter if it’s autism or not autism. I have proven strategies that can help your child with developmental and behavioral signs of autism. My step by step system, for instance, is helping parents and professionals while they are on waiting lists, have a diagnosis, or just suspect autism. These strategies include teaching their children how to point, how to talk or how to talk more, how to respond to their name, how to interact with them and their families. All very necessary and life affirming skills.
You can learn all about what to do for a child or client you suspect has autism before even getting an autism test. Use these strategies to determine if a test is necessary. Also, learn these strategies to teach skills that your child may be delayed with. That’s why you need to take my quiz at marybarbera.com/quiz. It’s a quiz for both parents and professionals that will only take you two minutes. Right after the quiz you’ll have the opportunity to watch a free online workshop to learn more about my child friendly approach.
Transcript
Autism testing waiting lists are long and getting longer by the day, but while you’re waiting for an autism test, there are some things that you can do to not only get a better idea of where your child or client is at developmentally, but also to put in some strategies that might help turn things around before the autism test. Hi, I’m Dr. Mary Barbera, autism mom board certified behavior analyst and bestselling author. Each week I provide you with some of my ideas about turning autism or signs of autism around. So if you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel, you can do that now. When the developmental pediatrician, Dr. James Coplan handed down the result of Lucas’s autism test of moderate to severe autism, my husband and I were devastated. The whole way home I cried and my husband kept saying things like, he’s never going to go to college. He’s never going to get married. That day, and for months after I was so stressed because I didn’t even know where to start in getting therapies in place. So now two decades later, I’ve transformed from that very confused and overwhelmed parent to a board certified behavior analyst. And now I know that there are a lot of things you can do to help your child or client before an autism test, not leaving you stressed like I was right before and after Lucas’s diagnosis.
There is no blood test for autism and no brain scans that can definitely rule it in or rule it out. So what practitioners look for who can make the diagnosis of autism, they look for developmental behavioral signs of autism. Dr. James Coplan who did diagnose Lucas has an early language milestone scale, which I did a video blog on. I’ve done many video blogs on what is autism, how is it diagnosed, how is it different than a speech delay, which tends to be one of the very first signs. There are a few main tests that practitioners would do. There’s also a screening tool that you can do called the MCHAT and you can download the MCHAT for free. I did a video blog on the MCHAT so you can check that out and you can download that should I think it’s 23 items and you can answer questions and know if your child or client is, is at risk of autism. The ADOS is also a test.
None of these tests though can be absolute and so don’t think that if they scored a certain score that it’s definitely autism or definitely not autism. But what you want to do is you want to know, and I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter if it’s autism or not autism. There are proven strategies for and my step by step system that is helping right now, parents on waiting lists, parents with children with autism, parents who just suspect autism or their child is very high risk for autism. They are using my step-by-step child-friendly strategies to help teach their children how to point, how to talk or how to talk more, how to respond to their name, how to interact with them and their families. So it’s very exciting. So you can learn all about what to do, how to how to assess to see if you should be on a wait list for an autism test.
You can also learn these strategies to teach these skills that your child may be delayed with. So the best way I know how to get you started right now is to take my new autism quiz at marybarbera.com/quiz. It’ll only take you two minutes, it’s for parents and professionals. Right after the quiz you’ll have the opportunity to watch a free online workshop to learn more about my child friendly approach. I hope you enjoyed learning some things that you can do with your child before an autism test. Don’t forget to go to marybarbera.com/quiz to help you get started today. And if you liked this video, leave me a comment, give me a thumbs up and share it with someone else who might benefit. And I’ll see you right here next week.
