Dr Anna Day – författare

Based on new and emerging clinical research, this book is here to guide you through creating a neuro-affirmative child autism assessment process for your practice.Moving away from a deficit-based medical approach to child autism assessment (identification), this comprehensive and detailed handbook covers the most up to date research and best practice. Created to encourage and empower clinicians to make a paradigm shift to a more neurodiversity-affirmative approach, this book acknowledges the challenges of working within a system that is inherently deficit based and provides practice points and clinical reflections on how to embed neurodiversity-affirmative principles in their individual practice. This handbook is essential reading for those involved in assessing, as well as for those working with Autistic children more generally.Including helpful tips and methods that can be used during the identification process, this handbook also includes lived experiences of Autistic children and case studies, and perspectives from an OT and SLT, so clinicians can gain a much deeper understanding of the young people they are working with. It also includes guidance for post-identification support and provides a clear roadmap for what happens next.

Mental health services support many Autistic people - whetheror not they are formally identified - and have a vital opportunity to embrace neurodiversity-affirmative approaches that truly meet their needs. Too often,traditional therapies, even when well-intentioned, can overlook Autistic ways of thinking, feeling, and being, repeating deficit-based narratives that do more harm than good.Integrating clinical expertise, contemporary theory, and lived experience,this definitive book empowers professionals to deliver truly neurodiversity-affirmative care. Exploring key aspects of Autistic experience including interoception, masking, monotropism, and double empathy, this book offers practical strategies for adapting therapy, assessment, and service delivery.Through reflective exercises and practice insights, this book bridges theory and practice to support authentic, respectful clinical relationships. It offers mental health professionals a compassionate roadmap for genuine support and redefines what effective mental health support for Autistic people can, and should, look like.

Adult autism assessment is a new and fast-growing clinical area, for which professionals often feel ill-equipped. Autistic adults are often misdiagnosed which has enormous implications for their mental health.This accessible and comprehensive adult autism assessment handbook covers the most up to date research and best practice around adult autism assessment. It centers the person's internal experiences and sense-making in clinical assessment, rather than subjective observation, thus providing the clinician with a truly paradigm shifting Neuro-Affirmative approach to autism assessment. Traditional clinical assessment tools are comprehensively explored and unpacked to enable the clinician to have full confidence in aligning traditional criteria to the Autistic person's subjective experiences.Full of additional resources like language guidelines and an exploration of the common intersections between Autistic experience and the effects of trauma, mental health and more, this book supplies a breadth of knowledge on key areas that affect Autistic adults in everyday life.The mixed team of neurotypical and neurodivergent authors describe lived experience of Autistic adults, a how-to for conducting Neuro-Affirmative assessments and post-assessment support, alongside reflections from practice. This book also has a directory of further resources including downloadable forms that you can use to prepare for your own assessments and a downloadable deep dive into Autistic perception. This guide will also support professionals through every step of the assessment process.