Hey, certain listeners. So just a quick note, I recorded this episode and didn't know that there was a problem with my audio recording equipment.

It resulted in kind of an echo occasional echo situation going on with my audio.

So if you are like me, you will not be able to listen to this episode because it will bother you too much.

But if you're not like me, which I'm guessing most people are not like me, you'll just hear a slight echo occasionally as I'm talking.

So just be aware of that.

Hey, certain listeners. I have a special guest with me today, Anthony Penet, Dr. Anthony Penet, a friend and colleague of mine to answer your questions about autism.

Thank you for having me, Dr. Honda. My name is Anthony Penet, Dr. Anthony Penet, and I am teaching faculty at Antioch University, Seattle and their couple and family therapy department.

I have an interest in working with individuals on the spectrum, specifically children on the spectrum of their families, and I just recently have completed a study around using family-based treatments to support families who have children on the spectrum.

Okay, so there are a lot of questions about how do you get assessed?

That very state by state, but I think the overall arching pathway to diagnosis is that you are with a qualified provider, which is usually a psychologist or a neuropsychiatrist or a medical doctor, if it's a child that's usually a developmental pediatrician, which they are specialized in younger children and how they develop, right, or mouse-on-wise.

So it would be a specialist for some sort. You can't just go to any therapist or any physician, you have to find. And I'm guessing it might be hard to find those folks.

It is usually very hard to find those folks. It's not really advertised, but I think the good starting point is that if you are an adult, you are starting with perhaps a therapist or your own medical doctor, right, and you can get a referral that way.

If you're working with a psychologist, that might be a good way to find some testing, or someone who is testing for ASD, autism spectrum disorder.

But usually the gateway is you go through a medical doctor, right, or a therapist, and then you're linked into some official testing with the qualified provider.

And how long does that testing take? It depends. So for children, there are a couple of batteries of tests that you usually use.

In order to do the tests and then to score them can be anywhere from I'm going to say about a good five to 15 hours of time that you do.

And then there's also interviews that you have to have with a family, perhaps with caregivers, with teachers, any other individuals that might interact with a child if it's a child.

And if it's an adult, right, you would want to get some interviews with perhaps family members or partners or whoever they're connected to, just to kind of compile a good understanding

as to like emotionally behavior and relationally what's happening for them and how they're showing up developmentally.

Sounds expensive. It can be. It can be. It sounds like some people wouldn't be able to afford that.

Yes, that's very true.

Because if we're talking about a psychologist, for example, or a neuropsych person, this could be 300 bucks an hour-ish.

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