Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder is a complicated, length process between providers, parents and children which can take between 10-14 hours to complete over a month. The Seattle Children’s Autism Center performs an annual ‘Blitz Week’ every summer, a week focused exclusively on\u00a0diagnosing ASD in children.<\/p>\n
During Blitz Week, the SCAC\u00a0performs more than 100 diagnoses in a single week, compared to a typical week’s 22 diagnoses on average. This year,\u00a0Blitz Week will use a new ‘team-evaluation model’, developed at the center, to diagnose ASD in about 3 hours! The new model pairs a psychiatrist or psychologist with a nurse practitioner, and together they make the diagnosis of autism. \u00a0The Bernier Lab’s Dr. Raphael Bernier and Dr. Jen Gerdts\u00a0helped develop, test and implement the ‘Team Evaluation’\u00a0model (read Dr. Gerdt’s 2016 IMFAR poster titled ‘Team Evaluation: A Streamlined Method for the Clinical Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder’<\/a>).<\/p>\n An\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0by Rebecca Sladek,\u00a0published in the University of Washington’s News Beat<\/a>,\u00a0explains ‘The team-eval model is not only more satisfying to parents of children being screened, but also improves diagnostic consistency.’ \u00a0This year’s Blitz Week, from August 1-5, will implement the new model\u00a0in order to provide faster, more consistent \u00a0ASD evaluations for children.<\/p>\n Read the full article here:\u00a0http:\/\/hsnewsbeat.uw.edu\/story\/blitz-week-idea-leads-faster-autism-assessments<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder is a complicated, length process between providers, parents and children which can take between 10-14 hours to complete over a month. The Seattle Children’s Autism Center performs an annual ‘Blitz Week’ every summer, a week focused exclusively on\u00a0diagnosing ASD in children. During Blitz Week, the SCAC\u00a0performs more than 100 diagnoses in … Continue reading New ‘Team-Evaluation Model’ used at SCAC’s Blitz Week<\/span>