Frequently asked questions
The ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Schedule Second Edition) is a standardised tool used for assessing autism. It is a semi-structured and activity-based assessment of communication, social interaction and play and restricted and repetitive behaviours.
The person being assessed will meet with the Lead Assessor remotely for the ADOS-2 assessment. This will be the same team member to the one who you met during your initial appointment. The ADOS-2 takes an hour. The ADOS-2 is then scored and written up to form part of the overall assessment and report. The panel will review the ADOS-2 outcome alongside other information gathered during the assessment process and this information is used together to help reach a decision on the diagnostic outcome.
Just like all other parts of the assessment process, we do not use the ADOS-2 outcome in isolation to diagnose autism, as this just provides a ‘snapshot’ in time. Sometimes people can score above the ‘threshold’ for autism on the ADOS but not be given a diagnosis and sometimes an individual can score below the ‘threshold’ for autism on the ADOS but given a diagnosis of autism. It is also a useful tool but it does have its failings and can be quite male-centric, so at Spectrum Sisters we understand that, and how different the female presentation can be so we supplement it with interviews, and other tools (ADI-R, RAADS-R, EQ, FQ, SQ, AQ, Cat-Q, and the Alexithymia Questionnaire).
A functional assessment is a detailed evaluation of how autism or ADHD affects a person’s everyday life, independence, and participation in work, education, and the community. Unlike a diagnostic assessment, which confirms a diagnosis, a functional assessment focuses on real-world abilities, challenges, and support needs.
Functional assessments help identify:
Daily living skills such as self-care, cooking, and household management
Communication and social interaction abilities
Learning, attention, and organisational skills
Work, study, and community participation needs
At Spectrum Sisters, functional assessments are NDIS-ready, providing clear, practical recommendations and guidance on how supports can be prioritised and funded. They are particularly valuable for plan managers, support coordinators, and participants seeking to ensure that NDIS funding is used effectively to meet real-life needs.
At Spectrum Sisters, we are very thorough, so our assessment process is very time consuming and in-depth. We spend a couple of hours doing the clinical interview, and an hour for the ADOS-2, then an hour or so for the follow-up appointment. For a child, we will also include separate parent interviews and may also talk to your GP, teacher, social worker (with your permission), separately. Combined assessments obviously will take longer. This will always be with your Lead Clinician so you have that consistency . That said, we understand how stressful that can be for someone who is neurodiverse, and know that many clients cannot sit for long periods of time, or may have trouble with eye contact etc. In the initial stages, we will ask about your preferred way of taking the assessment and we will offer for the contact hours with you to be spread over several days, or give you the opportunity to take regular breaks or offer you to turn your camera off. We cannot do that, however, when administering the ADOS-2 as that has to take no more or less than an hour as it is a standardised semi-structured assessment where we need to see you, and we cannot take breaks as there are several activities we need to get through in that time. We can be more flexible with the rest of the assessment, and there are many options and we want to make sure the assessment process goes as smoothly and as comfortably as possible for you.
That depends. We will do the initial interview where we will gather all relevant information and take a full history from you. We will gather information from other relevant sources (with your permission) such as family members, social workers, teachers, GPs, counsellors. We then will conduct the assessment (ADOS-2 for Autism, DIVA-5 for ADHD). We then have a Multi-Agency Review meeting which will include those from the field of psychiatry, social work, mental health nursing, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychology, depending on each case and what is most relevant. All that information is then compiled together and a detailed report with recommendations that you can use to access support will be sent to you.
We also provide a follow-up session free of charge once you have received the report and have digested it to go through it with you and answer any queries and concerns.
Once we start work on your case, it takes several weeks and many team hours to complete. Once you have your first appointment date we aim to turn each report around in 4 weeks.
Support Coordination is a service that helps NDIS participants navigate their plans, connect with providers, and make the most of their funding. While the NDIS plan outlines what supports a participant is entitled to, Support Coordination ensures those supports are practical, effective, and tailored to real-life needs.
A Support Coordinator can help with:
Understanding your NDIS plan and budget
Finding and engaging with service providers
Coordinating multiple supports to work together smoothly
Problem-solving and advocacy when issues arise
Monitoring progress and preparing for plan reviews
At Spectrum Sisters, our Support Coordination can help you because it is specialist, female-focused, and neurodiversity-affirming, ensuring that participants with autism or ADHD receive support that is practical, personalised, and empowering.
Yes you can. Our reports are designed to provide not only a diagnosis but focus on functional impacts in wording that is needed to access NDIS funding. We offer reports that are not jargon-based, but in real language that both the client and the NDIS can readily understand and use to access the relevant supports. They can also be used to access funding from Centrelink, and reasonable adjustments in workplace, and education.
Yes. Our assessments meet Autism CRC guidelines for assessment, which is endorsed by the NHMRC.
All our assessors in our multi-disciplinary team are qualified and registered practitioners, with specialist knowledge in Autism and ADHD in females, alongside lived experience. Our team includes psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, developmental paediatricians, social workers, mental health nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and nurse prescribers.
For NDIS clients. For Self-Managed, we require upfront payment which you can then claim back on your NDIS Portal.
For Plan-Managed, we will invoice your plan manager directly. We require staged payments for diagnostic assessments.
For private clients, to make assessments more affordable, we offer a payment plan of 3 instalments. The first when you book your assessment, the second before the first consultation, and the third when your report is ready.
Please don't worry. We hear this all the time. Unlike other providers, where you have your slot of several hours we understand that can just be too much for some neurodiverse people. In the initial interview we will discuss all of that with you, to ensure that the assessment process itself is as comfortable for you as possible. Examples of adjustments we commonly make are splitting the three hour ADOS-2 interview into 3 x1 hour slots over several days - taking breaks every 20 mins, turning camera off when eye contact becomes too much. When children are involved this can be even harder on them, so special toys, fidget items, jumping breaks, having a support person/animal alongside- whatever is needed to ensure the assessment goes as smoothly as possible. But we will discuss that with you in depth in the initial interview to see how we can accommodate you.
We completely understand that, and a diagnosis isn't a requirement for everyone. Its a personal choice. Some women, especially in later life, feel maybe it just isn't worth it. However, we have all found that a diagnosis has helped us or our loved ones to understand themselves better, and to get others to understand us better. And to get the appropriate supports in place in order to thrive if necessary.
A multi-disciplinary team in autism assessment involves clinicians from different disciplines providing input into the overall assessment process and diagnostic outcome. Autism CRC, endorsed by NHMRC, advises 2 professionals are involved, but we tend to use 4-6 to make our assessments more robust.
We are a team of Clinical Psychologists, Developmental Paediatricians, Psychiatrists, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, Mental Health Nurses, Nurse Prescribers and Specialist Teachers.
Although you may not always meet every type of professional in our team, you will always have the same Lead Clinician, and we hold a panel review to agree outcomes regarding diagnostic assessment, which will always include a Multi-disciplinary team. This ensures a robust process which is in line with Autism CRC Guidelines.
We may also liaise with other professionals outside of our clinic, with your consent, should we feel that this would be helpful.
he Autism CRC National Guideline (2018, endorsed by the NHMRC) sets the Australian gold standard for autism assessments. It was developed by leading clinicians and researchers to make sure assessments are consistent, thorough, and fair. The guideline recommends:
Use of validated diagnostic tools (such as ADOS-2, ADI-R, DIVA-5, QbTest).
Collecting developmental history and input from multiple sources (family, school, health records).
Considering co-occurring conditions like ADHD, anxiety, or learning difficulties.
A strengths-based approach, recognising abilities as well as challenges.
Input from a multidisciplinary team wherever possible.
At Spectrum Sisters, all of our assessments are designed to meet these standards.
All families/individuals can request a post-diagnostic remote appointment to talk through the report for up to one hour. This needs to be requested within 4 weeks of the report being sent. This is included in the assessment package.
Should you wish to access further post-diagnostic support you can ask us about our support coordination services.
Understandably, families and individuals often ask us whether a private diagnosis will be accepted by services. There is no reason for a private diagnosis not to be accepted, as long as the assessment has been undertaken by trained and experienced professionals, in line with the Autism CRC guidelines. We would therefore expect our reports and any diagnoses to be accepted by local services.
Every service is different so you may wish to contact your local services and check that they will accept a private diagnosis which adheres to the guidelines in the first instance.
Yes - in abundance, and currently we are the only provider who only assesses women and girls, and only employs female practitioners with high levels of expertise and lived experience on the female presentation. Many providers and professionals and assessment tools are not good at picking up the autism presentation in this group. Girls often mask traits and some settings such as school often do not fully understand this and miss it. We are proud that our team are highly skilled at assessing autism and ADHD in women and girls in our team.
We offer assessments from school age to very late diagnosis. We understand how common it is for women to be late-diagnosed and the impact menopause can have on symptoms. We also see the same in puberty.
We also recognise how beneficial - but confronting - a diagnosis can be, and are here to support you through that.
Absolutely. We have had an increasing number of enquiries from families who report concerns that their child is presenting with ADHD traits, but the school do not report the same concerns. Whilst it is true that for a diagnosis of ADHD to be made there must be evidence in line with this across settings, this does not necessarily need to include school if there is a high level of masking. We can discuss this further with you during the screening possible.
The Qb Check is a computer based test that measures the core symptoms of ADHD: attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Your child’s scores will be compared with other children’s scores of the same age and gender to see whether they struggle in these areas more than others. This is also used the adult ADHD assessment. You can find out more about this at www.qbcheck.com.
We hear this a lot. Middle-aged women who want answers about themselves and are wondering how we will assess when their parents are dead, estranged, or just in denial/not willing to comply with the process. It is actually surprisingly common. For an adult assessment, we do not need to talk to others but if we can talk to friends, spouse, siblings, parents, that helps us get a bigger picture of course, but it isn't a requirement for a diagnosis.
Trauma, attachment disorders, hormonal changes (puberty and menopause) can all greatly increase the symptoms of ADHD/Autism, but also can be mistaken as such. It can be quite hard to separate them, but we are highly trained across various fields such as social work and psychiatry, so using specialist tools and techniques we are able to rule out other reasons for the behaviours a client is displaying as part of our process.
This is very very common in women with neurodiversity. You may have been masking heavily in earlier years, and you may be struggling now after burning out after all the years of masking. Menopause also doesn't help. We now know the huge damage masking can do to women and girls on the spectrum. The impact on mental health is huge.
For ADHD, we follow the Australian Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline for ADHD (2022, endorsed by NHMRC). This ensures our assessments are thorough, use validated tools such as DIVA-5 and QBTest, and focus on how ADHD affects day-to-day functioning.
Comprehensive clinical interview including developmental and medical history.
Use of validated diagnostic tools (e.g. DIVA-5, Conners scales, QBTest).
Consideration of co-occurring conditions (very common with ADHD).
Gathering information from multiple sources (family, school, medical records).
Functional assessment — impact on work, study, relationships, daily life.