In this video, Dr. Arturo Corrales, PsyD, Director of Diagnostic Assessments at Behavioral Innovations, addresses a common concern among parents: the time commitment involved in an Autism Diagnostic Assessment. Discover the reasons behind this essential process and how it aligns with your child's long-term goals.
Arturo Corrales, PsyD: The biggest concern is just the time crunch or the amount of time that is required of families when undergoing this diagnostic assessment and evaluation process. 3 hours is a lot to ask of a family to be in the clinic, especially if your child is already displaying some type of difficulty sitting still, or we know that your child may be uncomfortable in a new situation. I think what I hope that parents hold on to is thinking about the long term right, so while yes, we will require 3 hours of your time face to face physically in the clinic, you’ll have a fully integrated psychological report that will have your history and information, a diagnosis if it’s been provided for your child, it’ll have the data and the results of everything that we’ve formally gone through during that testing time and then of course at the end it’ll have recommendations.
Arturo Corrales, PsyD: While it’s 3 hours to go through this full battery of Assessments, we also ask for some questionnaires that families will be able to complete on their own time. For me, it’s important to get a bird’s eye view, a well-rounded picture of your child, so that I can make an accurate diagnosis if needed and so that I can specifically tailor recommendations for your family and specifically for your child. I will never proclaim to be the expert on your child by looking at them for 2 to 3 hours. Based off of your information, the questionnaires that you fill out, and that 3-hour block chunk of time that we use all of that to integrate that information and then provide you with a beautiful, detailed report and specifically tailored recommendations to help support your child in whatever areas or whatever domains they may need.