Some things you can do to prepare your child in the process of diagnosis and assessment.


​1. Have the assessment conducted in a few sessions, allowing the child to first bond with the psychologist. So that it is not rushed, and the child is able to do better as the entire assessment duration can be quite long and rigorous. Something that takes time for development of the child to cope with. 

​2. Familiarising the child with the setting and person, helps to reduce anxiety and uncertainty.

3. If child has language and can understand and follow instructions, you can provide a number of broken down steps, of what is expected.

4. You can also bring things of interest eg. plushies to let the psychologist use to work with the assessment.

5. For children with high anxiety, you can request to sit in and accompany the child, but only for emotional support.

6. For children with co-morbidies eg. selective mutism, you can request to allow child to write instead of speak. However this can affect the assessment as some parts of it includes speech. 

7. Don't try to cheat the exam. The assessment should clarify on the child's needs, so that educators and other professionals know where to support the child in. They might miss the needs if the results are not accurate. We understand parents might be concerned due to the cognitive testing portion, as it can affect the school they will go to. Sometimes parents can defer their child for a year while building up on their gaps and needs as well as confidence and relatability to social interactions. 

8. Let child know how well he put effort to withstand the session. Don't focus on the results. Its more empowering to focus only what the child has done really well. That way it paves for confidence to handle other types of test situations in future.

Disclosure of child's diagnosis to a mainstream school setting.


In mainstream public schools, many times parents are not ready to disclose their child's diagnosis or even have their child diagnosed. They worry that it can affect their future. However we would like to encourage parents to have consultations with professionals, as many of them can have many hidden challenges that needs alot of understanding and support. If these hidden challenges were thought to be pathological, the impact would be hard on the child for sure. Child might face discrimination from peers, educators, and might not receive the kind of support he/she really needs in order to learn. Some schools without any reports or assessments would not be able to cater any support for your child. As well as any accomodations for school learning, and exam situations. 

Every mainstream there will be a couple of teachers as the role of Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural Support), School Counsellor who might be assigned to support your child. However there is a limit to the number of these teachers in one school. As there might be several students in each level to have unique needs, they might only have more support for those with higher needs. As such it is best to closely work with the AEDs, to discuss about your child's needs when applying to the school. Some parents might require the AEDs and teachers to be tactful especially with forms with their information, to not disclose the child's diagnosis to the child, to allow the child to slowly have more time and growth before any disclosure was made. It is best to discuss with school leaders, and supporting teachers and AEDs on the needs of your child.

Usually I would encourage parents to write a summary of child's profile for their teachers who is supporting them, remember a strength-based profile can greatly change how certain support can be for your child. The summary can be for eg. child's interests, strengths, challenges, what strategies can work, any trauma or fears, list of formally diagnosed and suspected conditions, parent's main focus and expectations for child in the school. Any information that can help the educator understand your child better.

Disclosure of child's diagnosis to the child.

​Remember, the process can harness the social model to be in focus. To fully embrace, showcase diversity of all kinds of humans, all kinds of brains, all kinds of race, religion, cultures, disabilities. Strengths & weaknesses of different people, if child do know any famous people eg. albert einstein, yes you can use that as well. 

(Note: individual pages of different neurology have links to how you can disclose as well)


Getting Started: Introducing Your Child to His or Her Diagnosis ...

It’s Not a Secret: Why Disclosure is Important

When (and How) Should You Tell Kids