Health & Daily Living
Guidelines - what to look for in a diagnostic service
The following information may be helpful when considering a diagnostic assessment and which service provider to choose.
The assessment process should:
- Consider the whole child and the family.
- Ideally be conducted by members of a multi-disciplinary team (e.g. doctor, psychologist, speech-language therapist, occupational therapist, social worker, and cultural advisor) who will work from health and education departments or may work from privately operated clinics or centres.
- Involve parents in a detailed interview and history taking (including developmental, medical, and family history of health).
- Involve liaison with the person’s pre-school and school .
- Involve observation of the child in the clinic or hospital, at home and/or school.
- Be conducted by a diagnostician who has a working knowledge of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual; American Psychiatric Association APA; 1994) or the ICD-10 (International Classifications of Diseases; World Health Organisation, 1994).
- When indicated, be global and involve other specialists/agencies as appropriate for example, intellectual assessment by a qualified psychologist, communication and language by speech-language therapist, sensory and motor processing by an occupational therapist.