ASKY is for use with children and teens who have difficulties with social communication. For example, they have difficulty understanding what others are trying to tell them and others have difficulty understanding what they think or feel. Often, others first notice the associated behavior or sensory sensitivities of such children and teens, rather than their social communication difficulties. ASKY covers all these areas.

After using ASKY, you'll have a good idea of the specific areas in which your child has difficulties, of what the child's pattern of difficulties may be called, and of what types of specialists know how to assess such difficulties. You'll also have a useful report that you can print out to guide your conversations with the child's doctor and others (e.g., psychologists, occupational and speech therapists). If your child does not appear to have difficulties in the areas examined by ASKY then you will be told so.

ASKY is especially helpful in such cases. ASKY was designed to help parents and other concerned adults who switch back and forth between suspecting there might be a real problem thinking maybe this is normal or the child will grow out of it.

Or who are sure there's a problem but have no idea what it might be, and therefore have no idea where to start getting effective help for the child.

Or whose child has been diagnosed with some condition (or with a whole shopping list of conditions) but who are not convinced that the child's diagnosis is correct.

Or who see that treatment for the condition(s) the child is already diagnosed with is not helping the child much.

Yes. ASKY probes social communication difficulties and associated behaviors and sensory sensitivities. The ASKY report gives you a full picture of these difficulties with respect to your child. You can then take your child's difficulties into account on a day to day basis. This is an essential first step for all children and, for a few, it may be all that's required.

Children who are easily enraged or who withdraw and avoid others their age may blame their situation on everyone else being "stupid," "liars," or "horrible." The ASKY preliminary assessment can tell you whether the child has social communication difficulties. Such difficulties can set the stage for rage and withdrawal. With this information in hand, you can make a better decision as to whether to take the child for a comprehensive diagnostic assessment, you will know what sort of specialists to turn to, and it will be easy for you to explain what the issues are by giving them the detailed ASKY report.

The purpose of ASKY is to provide a way for adults, especially parents, to understand their child's difficulties and communicate them to others. ASKY does not provide a diagnosis and does not replace one. For more information, see the next FAQ.

Wrong. ASD can only be diagnosed if, in addition to having (now or in the past) social communication and behavioral/sensory symptoms that are causing problems, the child also had these types of symptoms (to at least some extent) when s/he was very young (i.e., during early development) and if it's not something else.

There are many conditions with overlapping symptoms.
For example, extreme long-term anxiety can cause children to avoid looking at people much of the time. This in turn means they will miss out on most social cues and gradually their social skills will fall behind those of their age group. They may also adopt various nervous mannerisms or repetitive behaviors to try and control their anxiety. These children may look like they have ASD, but actually their social learning ability is just like that of most other children. So, if you treat their anxiety then you should see big improvements in their social skills.

Another example—severe ADHD can cause children to fail to notice social cues (which will delay their social learning) and to act before they think (so their response may be inappropriate). These children may look like they have ASD, but actually their social learning ability is just like that of most other children. So, during periods when their ADHD is under control (e.g., when they are on meds) then you should see big improvements in social functioning.

Many other conditions also overlap to a greater or lesser extent with ASD. Specialists with a lot of experience in ASD are best able to reliably diagnose whether the child's difficulties come from ASD and/or something else.

So long as children feel okay in themselves and so long as their relationships within the family, friends, and at school are okay, then there's probably no need to proceed to full assessment of suspected social communication issues.

Instead, continue keeping an eye on the situation. Children with social communication issues can deteriorate very fast from "getting on well" to "crash and burn" so that children who were doing fine at age four (say) may struggle by age seven and cause alarm at around age nine. A major reason for this can be an increasingly large gap opening up between their social skills level and the level everyone else their age is operating at. Doing ASKY's preliminary assessment helps you understand what to pay attention to and empowers you to seek specialist advice in a timely manner if your child's situation changes.

The only reason to get a diagnosis is if it will help the child. If it won't help the child, there's no point getting him or her diagnosed. The possible downsides of getting a formal diagnosis—stigma and narrowed horizons—are well known and tend to dominate parents thoughts at first. So for diagnosis to be worth it for your child, the advantages need to outweigh these disadvantages (which can also be managed somewhat).

The major advantages of having social communication issues formally diagnosed are that:

A formal diagnosis grants the education system more flexibility with respect to your child by enabling teachers to take your child's communication difficulties into account—for example, by explaining things in a more concrete way, adopting different teaching methods, and by being less quick to blame the child and more understanding. For children in mainstream schools, formal diagnosis also provides access to in-school help (from the addition of a teacher's aide, to more time to complete tests, to dedicating school hours to teaching social skills and more).

A formal diagnosis grants access to effective treatment options. Treatment for social communication challenges involves teaching social communication skills. There are some very effective programs around, but often children cannot access them (not even privately) until their communication issues have been formally diagnosed.

A formal diagnosis helps increase the effectiveness of treatments for other issues that may accompany social communication problems. For example, a diagnosis of social communication challenges can influence the way attention deficits, hyperactivity, eating issues, anxiety, and depression are treated.

A formal diagnosis can enable your child to meet others like him or her. This can be a very validating experience for the child. Formal diagnosis also opens up access to information and support groups for parents and siblings.

If your child needs any of the above, then getting a formal diagnosis is likely to be worthwhile.

Teenagers may be very resistant to the idea of assessment and diagnosis. This is particularly likely if they think all the difficulties in their lives are caused by others, or if they do not recognize that they have difficulties.

Ideally, you would take your teen to a doctor or psychologist with a lot of experienced in assessing social communication in teens. In that case, get the clinician's advice regarding what to say to your teen and when. If that is not possible, then be as matter-of-fact as possible and do not give more information than the teen asks for. For example, say: I'm taking you to see someone who understands social communication. If the teen wants to know why, then give reasons connected to things that are important in the eyes of your teen.