Autism Evaluation
Autism Evaluation
Many autistic people especially women and those who learned early to mask, spend decades without a name for their experience. They may have been told they were too sensitive, too intense, or simply difficult. Others were bright enough to compensate, social enough to pass, and exhausted by both.
Our evaluation combines in-depth questionnaires about your sensory experience, social communication, and daily life with a structured, naturalistic conversation through a neuro-affirming lens with a psychologist designed to understand how you actually experience the world, not to compare you against a narrow behavioral template. The process is not a test of how autistic you are. It is a structured conversation about if and/or how you are autistic.
Areas the evaluation explores include:
Social communication - How you connect and communicate including the styles that feel natural, the ones that take effort, and the gap between how you're perceived and how you experience yourself
Sensory experience - How your nervous system processes the world including what feels overwhelming, what feels regulating, and how sensory experience contributes to your success
Interests, patterns, and thinking styles - The things your mind returns to, the routines that help you function, and the ways of thinking that are often autistic strengths and explored as aspects of your neurotype, not symptoms to be managed
Masking and personal history - How you've adapted to environments not built for your neurotype and how years of masking may have shaped how your autistic traits appear to others, including previous clinicians
This evaluation is for adults and college students exploring autism for the first time and for those who have been assessed before and left feeling like the evaluation didn't really see them. You don't need to present in any particular way. Reevaluations are available for those whose prior assessments did not accurately reflect their experience.
Everything you already know about yourself the patterns you've noticed, the things that have always been hard, the ways you've learned to navigate is essential clinical information here, not background noise. Results are always reviewed with you by a psychologist who holds your full history, strengths, and lived experience as central, not incidental, to what they mean. We approach autism as a neurotype, not a deficit. Self-referrals are welcome.
The Assessment Process
Our process involves three appointments: intake, assessment, and feedback.
We begin with a 60-minute intake appointment to collaboratively design the evaluation process around your needs. This is generally followed, within 1 to 3 weeks, by an assessment appointment which can range from under an hour to five hours, depending on which service you've selected.
Results typically take 1 to 4 weeks to be reviewed, processed, and written into a report. We conclude with a 45-minute feedback session, where Dr. Worm reviews your results and shares detailed recommendations both in conversation with you and in a written report.
All sessions are conducted virtually. If in-person is preferred, we can schedule appointments at our Takoma Park office.
If results are needed more quickly, just let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate.
Here is what each appointment looks like:
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Prior to your appointment, you'll complete an intake form covering key aspects of your history. During the intake appointment, we will:
Discuss your experiences across domains such as academic, work, family history, cognitive, emotional, physical, and social functioning
Collaborate to identify the best approach for your assessment process, including whether the evaluation is the right next step for you. If not, Dr. Worm will provide resources and referrals
Schedule your assessment and feedback appointments
The intake appointment lasts approximately 60 minutes and is conducted virtually for your convenience.
If you've had prior testing, evaluations, or diagnoses, please bring that documentation to your intake appointment, or upload it beforehand to the client portal.
If you are interested in exploring academic, work, or standardized testing accommodations, please let Dr. Worm know so we can confirm the assessment process covers any required items.
Between the intake and assessment appointments, you and someone who knows you well may be asked to complete surveys or questionnaires about your experiences.
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Conducted after the intake appointment, generally 1 to 3 weeks afterward.
For Autism Evaluations, we’ll have a structured, naturalistic conversation through a neuro-affirming lens to explore your past and current experiences, including sensory use and interests, language and communication, and social relationships and emotional responses.
The appointment length varies from 1 hour to 3 hours and will be reviewed with you during your intake appointment.
Please take your medications as usual for this session.
If in person, bringing your own snacks and water can be helpful during breaks. The office is well air-conditioned, so please consider bringing an extra layer if needed.
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Generally scheduled 1 to 4 weeks after the assessment appointment.
During this time, Dr. Worm reviews the results of your evaluation and integrates them with the discussion of your lived experience from the intake appointment. He then prepares a written report providing an overview of the assessment process and findings. All written reports can generally be used for accommodations for school and work and sent to other providers including psychiatrists and therapists. Generally, only Comprehensive ADHD and Learning Disability Assessment reports can be used for accommodations for standardized tests.
During the feedback session, Dr. Worm will walk you through the results and explore with you how they align with your lived experience. This is also your opportunity to ask questions or share any concerns about the results.
At the end of the session, he'll provide you with your written report. If any changes are needed to better align with the discussion from the feedback session, Dr. Worm will provide the report within one week of the feedback session.
The feedback appointment lasts approximately 45 minutes and is conducted virtually for your convenience.
If you need your report sent directly to a school, employer, or other party, let us know and we can arrange that with your written permission.
If reevaluation, further documentation, or additional resources are needed after your feedback session, just let us know. We're happy to work with you.
Other assessments we provide are listed on Services.
Unsure which one suits you? Reach out to us today, and we'll help you find the right one. We offer complementary 15 minute consultations to discuss options.