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Autism AssessmentsA comprehensive autism evaluation is one of the most consequential assessments a family can pursue. Rebecca provides thorough, interview-driven assessments for children and adults, with the diagnosis grounded in data.
Autism looks different at four than it does at fourteen, and different again at forty. Rebecca has evaluated children as young as four and adults who were never identified in childhood, conducting both first-time assessments and reevaluations that update or revisit a prior diagnosis.
For families who are first raising the question of autism, Rebecca conducts a full diagnostic evaluation that gathers information from parents, caregivers, and teachers alongside direct structured assessment activities with your child.
Many adults grew up without a diagnosis, having learned to mask, compensate, or simply endure confusion about why social situations felt so costly. An adult autism evaluation names patterns that have always been present and opens doors to support, accommodations, and self-understanding.
A childhood diagnosis may no longer fully capture how someone presents as they grow, or a prior evaluation may lack the rigor that today's school systems, medical providers, and disability services require. Rebecca conducts reevaluations that give families current, defensible documentation.
Autism is not diagnosed from a single test score. A valid evaluation requires multiple sources of information, gathered carefully and interpreted together. This is what Rebecca means when she says interviews are central to the process.
The parent interview is often the longest part of the process, because developmental history matters enormously in autism diagnosis. Rebecca asks about early language milestones, social play, repetitive interests, sensory sensitivities, and how your child functions across home, school, and community settings. For teenagers, the teen's own perspective is gathered directly as well.
How a child behaves in a structured school setting, in the cafeteria, or on the playground often reveals patterns that do not appear at home. When appropriate, Rebecca gathers standardized rating scales and collects information from teachers and school staff to round out the picture.
Rebecca uses specific, validated autism assessment instruments alongside her clinical observation. These tools create a structured framework for measuring social communication, behavioral patterns, and sensory processing against established diagnostic criteria. The instruments she selects depend on your child's age and the specific clinical question.
Spending structured time with your child or with the adult being evaluated is not a formality. Rebecca uses direct interaction to observe social reciprocity, communication patterns, eye contact, flexibility in transitions, and other markers that inform the diagnostic picture. What she sees in the room is weighed alongside all other data.
Every evaluation concludes with a comprehensive report that summarizes the clinical interview findings, the results of each assessment tool, Rebecca's diagnostic conclusions, and specific recommendations. The report is written to be usable with your child's school, pediatrician, therapist, or any other provider involved in their care.
Rebecca reviews the completed report with you in person at a feedback session. This is not a brief summary. She walks through every finding in plain language, answers your questions, and makes sure you understand what the evaluation found and what comes next. You leave with the full report in hand.
You have watched your child navigate the world since birth. That history is clinical data, and no standardized tool captures it the way a skilled interview does.
When a child was first evaluated and what they were like at 18 months, two years, and three years cannot be reconstructed from test scores alone. Parents carry this history. Rebecca's intake interviews are thorough precisely because those early developmental details form the foundation of a defensible diagnosis.
A child who holds it together at school may fall apart at home. A child who seems fine at home may be white-knuckling every school day. Neither setting alone tells the whole story. Parent input about functioning across multiple environments is part of what turns a test battery into an accurate clinical picture.
For older children and teenagers, Rebecca includes their perspective directly. Adolescents often have strong insight into their own experience, and their voice matters in the evaluation. The process is designed so that a teen understands what is happening and why, rather than feeling observed from the outside.
The autism evaluation report Rebecca produces is written to be used, not filed away. Here are the common places families put it to work.
The questions families ask most often, answered honestly.
Rebecca evaluates children as young as four years old. For most families, four is the youngest age at which a thorough autism evaluation can be completed reliably, because the standardized tools used require a child to be able to engage in structured interaction. If your child is younger and you have serious concerns, contact Rebecca to discuss what makes sense given your situation.
It is never too late. Many children are missed in early childhood, especially those with strong verbal skills or who learned to compensate in structured environments like early elementary school. Concerns that surface in middle school, high school, or even adulthood are completely valid and often reflect real patterns that were always present. A thorough evaluation looks at developmental history alongside current functioning, so the picture comes together even when the concern surfaces later.
Yes. Rebecca evaluates adults who were never diagnosed as children. Many adults come in after recognizing patterns in themselves, after a child or sibling is diagnosed, or after years of feeling different without an explanation. An adult autism evaluation draws on a detailed personal history and clinical observation, and the findings can inform therapy, workplace accommodations, disability services, and a better understanding of yourself.
An autism evaluation at Anchor EEC is built around in-depth interviews and specific standardized diagnostic tools. For children and teens, this means a thorough parent interview covering developmental history, early communication milestones, social patterns, sensory sensitivities, and current daily functioning. Rebecca also gathers information from teachers or other caregivers when appropriate. Direct observation and structured assessment activities with your child are central to the process. Every piece of information is weighed together before any diagnostic conclusion is reached.
The full evaluation process typically spans more than one appointment. The parent interview alone is often an hour or longer, because developmental history is foundational to an accurate autism evaluation. Direct assessment with your child adds additional time. Plan for the process to unfold over one to three sessions depending on your child's age, stamina, and the specific questions being addressed. Rebecca will walk you through what to expect at your initial consultation.
Several situations call for a reevaluation. A childhood diagnosis may need to be updated to reflect current presentation, especially as a child moves into adolescence or adulthood and the demands of their environment shift. Some families received a diagnosis years ago from a provider who did not use current standardized tools, and a more rigorous evaluation gives them documentation that is accepted by school systems, medical providers, and disability services. Others question whether a prior diagnosis still fits, or whether additional diagnoses explain what the original evaluation missed. Rebecca evaluates all of these situations.
A short consultation is the right first step. Rebecca will help you understand what evaluation makes sense and what the process looks like from start to finish.