What are evaluations?
Is it just me or are these “evaluations” to determine diagnosis and treatment a little confusing? I am part of several autism mom groups on social media and I’ve noticed most people do not have the same diagnosis. They are all slightly different and vary between the broad spectrum that autism is calculated on, so I wasn’t sure what to expect out of that initial diagnosis. First of all it’s a mess to even get that scheduled (for us anyway), we were told we needed a Dr.’s referral, so we got that, then we had to wait for the specialist to contact us. And when they did we were immediately told of the outrageous upfront price we would need to cover out of pocket. I understand that we would need to pay something but that was a bit much for us. So on my own I started researching and contacting Dr.’s offices to see what the best option for us would be. Luckily we were able to find a place for about half the price upfront and they also allowed payments be made as long it was paid for at time of the appointment. Yayyyy so I thought.
On the day of the appointment we had to be there at 8AM they told us not to plan to go to school after the appointment because it would be a 4-6 hour phycological evaluation that would be stressful and exhausting on him. As a mom I prepared for this, took off work, put him to bed early good dinner, big breakfast to get him through the appointment without the hungry taking over and explained to him what the day would be like so that he wasn’t in a mood from the routine change. We get there along with another family and were sent to a waiting room, from there we were called into a room where we spend about 10 minutes talking to a man who did not introduce himself to us. This man did not speak to my son he only asked questions directed to me about what I was seeing. He then directed us back to the waiting room where we waited for another 15 minutes or so. By this time I was already feeling weird about what was going to happen next. Finally my son was called back for the “game” part of the evaluation and I was handed a 30 page 1-5 choice evaluation to fill out of Atticus’ life basically up to where he is now. He stayed in the room with another lady who also did not introduce herself to us for maybe 20 minutes and brought back out for a break from the session. I kind of expected there to be a few breaks considering the amount of time they told us to prepare to be there but by this point he hadn’t even spent 45 minutes combined to have done any real evaluating… So we start playing in the waiting room because he is over it at this point. Nothing real has happened and he’s just done with being there. So she comes back to get him and I continue filling out the mountain of paperwork. He’s back there for another 20 minutes and she returned with him and tells me that is everything. I wasn’t even done filling out the stack of papers if that gives you an idea of how much there was, so we had to sit in the waiting room another 30 minutes while I complete those and try and keep my 6-year-old entertained. I finally get done and knock on the door to turn them in, and she tells me it will be 4 weeks before there are any results to discuss and he would not need to come with me for that appointment.
I left feeling defeated in so many ways, confused to the max, and overstimulated myself. From here I will wait for the results and then proceed from there because idk what else to do. I know I shopped around and found a better deal for my family but to be honest why is that the standard? I have no idea who we met with or what even happened and I’m fairly certain they are going to take that stack of paperwork that I filled out and give us a diagnosis (hopefully a legitimate one) based off my answers, because where else would the information come from?? Surely not from the small amount of time they spent with him…
I’ll keep yall posted!
From a mother’s perspective – Rachel