Understanding how your teenager experiences the world.
Adolescent Autism Assessment (ISAA)
If your teenager finds social situations, changes in routine, or certain sounds and textures harder than others seem to, you may wonder whether autism could be part of the picture. This assessment starts with a conversation. Your psychologist then uses the Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA), which is a scale developed in India to understand how your teenager communicates, relates to other people, and responds to the world around them.
What the questionnaire looks at.
Social connection
How your teenager makes and keeps friendships, shares enjoyment with others, and takes part in give and take with other people.
Emotional responses
How your teenager shows and reads feelings and how they respond when something changes or goes wrong.
Speech and communication
How your teenager uses speech, gestures, and eye contact, and how they understand what others say.
Behaviour patterns
Repeated movements or actions, a strong attachment to routines, and focused interests.
Sensory experiences
How sounds, lights, textures, tastes, or touch affect your teenager.
Thinking and learning
How your teenager's attention, memory, and understanding show up in everyday life.
Note: Are you unsure whether this is the right assessment? A short conversation with our team is a good place to start. We will recommend the right option for your situation.
Why this assessment may be recommended
Your teenager finds friendships or group situations hard or prefers time alone.
Changes in routine or plans cause strong distress.
Certain sounds, lights, or textures feel overwhelming.
Your teenager has strong and focused interests or repeated behaviours that matter a great deal to them.
A teacher or doctor has suggested looking more closely at autism.
You would like clarity about your teenager's strengths and the support that may help at school and at home.
How the assessment works.
- 1Step 1
A conversation first
You and your psychologist talk about your teenager's development, strengths, and the things that worry you. Together, you decide whether the ISAA suits your teenager.
- 2Step 2
Observation and the scale
Your psychologist spends time with your teenager and uses what they observe, along with what you tell them, to rate behaviours across six areas of everyday life. Each behaviour is rated by how strong it is, how often it happens, and how long it lasts.
- 3Step 3
Review
Your psychologist considers the ratings along with your teenager's history and, where available, information from school or others who know them well.
- 4Step 4
Feedback and next steps
You have a complimentary feedback session of about 30 minutes where the report is explained in plain language and next steps are discussed.
Confidential and clinically guided
Your assessment is carried out with professionalism, dignity, and confidentiality. Your psychologist explains what they find in plain language, and you can ask questions at any point.
Please note: The ISAA is one part of an autism assessment. It cannot diagnose on its own. A diagnosis is a clinical decision made after looking at the full picture, including your teenager's history and daily life. Autism is a different way of experiencing and responding to the world. The scale describes how strongly different behaviours show up and it is not a pass or fail test.
Things people ask
No. It is a conversation and an observation, and there are no right or wrong answers. Your teenager does not need to prepare.
You can tell them in simple words that they are meeting someone who wants to understand them better. Your psychologist can also suggest ways to prepare if you ask.
Autism can show up in communication, friendships, routines, and sensory experiences. Your psychologist looks across several areas to build a full picture.
It helps your psychologist work out whether autism fits your teenager's experience. Sometimes the answer is that something else, such as anxiety, ADHD, or a learning difficulty, explains more of what you have noticed, and the assessment can point to what may help.
The ISAA gives a total score and scores for each area. Your psychologist explains what these mean for your teenager in plain language at the feedback session. A score describes how strongly behaviours show up. It does not describe your teenager's abilities or worth.
Some families ask about disability certificates. The ISAA is used in India in the process of assessing autism for this purpose. Certificates are issued by the authorities. The clinic that carries out the assessment does not issue them. Please ask our care coordinator what to expect.
Support depends on your teenager's needs. It may include help with communication, sensory experiences, and adjustments at home and at school. Your psychologist talks through the options with you.
Results are kept confidential with the standard exceptions required by law, such as a risk of serious harm to your teenager or someone else. We talk with you and your teenager about who will receive them before anything is shared.
Want to arrange an assessment, or just ask a question?
Our care coordinator will talk you through what to expect confidentially.
If you need urgent help: Are you in immediate distress? Please call iCall 9152987821 for immediate support.