A Strengths-Based Approach to Autism Assessment
While it’s important not to get caught up in labels, sometimes they do serve a function. Part of what labels do is they give us a roadmap to good treatment and interventions.
But we all know that autism is a spectrum, and there are different levels of severity. If we look at the different things that make up core processing differences in autism, both strengths and challenges, these can look different from person to person, but also within an individual's life.
At the end of the day, what we’re all trying to do is help an individual make sense of their own experience: to really start to understand their own identity, how they interact with the world, how they interact with themselves, and how they interact with other people. Then as professionals or parents, how can we go in and have the best understanding of the person we are working with so we can best support them?
We always want an assessment to look at the strengths of an individual. Some common strengths of autism include honesty, a desire to connect, a good memory, attention to detail, and a unique sense of humor. We want to make sure that we are really honing in on these things when we are doing a screening, a diagnostic interview, or talking to teachers.
We want to support the areas that can help individuals with autism meet their goals. We also want to think about harnessing their strengths. The neurodiversity movement gives us a nice framework for this kind of assessment. Developmental differences are a result of normal variations in the genome. They are not necessarily something wrong that needs to be fixed. There just are differences, and with these differences can come some challenges when we are in a largely neurotypical society.
Sometimes people are going to say, “Is this autism? Is this something else?” What we do know is a child is struggling, so how can we begin to understand their behaviors a little bit better from an assessment framework? In this regard, it can be helpful to find the function of a behavior. What is a person getting out of this behavior? What is maintaining their problematic behavior? This should be a collaborative process. It shouldn’t be the school or parents saying that behaviors are problematic. It’s really about the person who’s needing help. How are they saying this behavior is getting in the way of their life?
Sometimes what we need to do as part of this functional assessment is really help them connect the dots and tell them, “I keep on seeing this behavior, and it keeps on getting you into trouble with your friends. I'm really wondering if we should we try to figure this out. Should we be detectives?” This is crucially important. If we are thinking about strengths, we want to teach an individual that they can apply these skills. They can then apply the insight.
In the video below, see how experts Rebecca Sachs, PhD, ABPP, and Tamara Rosen, PhD, roleplay a strengths-based approach to autism assessment:
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Rebecca Sachs is the co-founder of Successful School Transitions and maintains a private practice. She has employment relationships with the International OCD Foundation and the LIU Post. Dr. Sachs receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Rebecca Sachs is a member of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, the Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism Associations, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and the New York State Psychological Association.
Tamara Rosen, PhD, is trained in both assessment and therapeutic interventions. Dr. Rosen has worked with youth and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a variety of settings for over a decade. She is currently completing her Postdoctoral Fellowship with an emphasis on the intersection of mental health and developmental differences at JFK Partners, University of Colorado School of Medicine. In her fellowship, Dr. Rosen provides consultation and supervision to developmental pediatricians, social workers, psychology trainees, Speech and Language pathologists and Occupational Therapists. She received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from SUNY, Stony Brook University. Under the mentorship of ASD researcher Dr. Matthew Lerner, she completed her dissertation on the structure of co-occurring anxiety and depression symptoms in youth with ASD. Dr. Rosen is passionate about increasing access to evidence-based mental health services for individuals with developmental differences.
Speaker Disclosure:
Financial: Tamara Rosen is postdoctoral faculty fellow, LEND fellow at Children’s Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado School of Medicine. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.
Non-financial: Tamara Rosen has no relevant non-financial relationship to disclose.
