Wheeler Clinic Offers Comprehensive Evaluation and Assessment Services for Children and Youth

Understanding a child's development and learning style is crucial to providing a strong foundation for tools, interventions, and support. Wheeler Clinic's Autism Diagnostic Evaluation Program and the Diagnostic Assessment and Referral Team (DART) offer customized and integrated evaluations to identify the unique needs of youth and young adults. These programs serve children ages 3 to 21 and measure cognitive, adaptive, social, and behavioral functioning to determine if autism spectrum disorder is an appropriate diagnosis.

Key Takeaways:

Wheeler's Autism Diagnostic Evaluation Program serves youth ages 3 to 21 and measures cognitive, adaptive, social, and behavioral functioning to determine if autism spectrum disorder is an appropriate diagnosis.
The program is available to families enrolled in Husky A, C, and D insurance and accepts direct referrals from families only.
The Diagnostic Assessment and Referral Team (DART) provides customized, integrated, multidisciplinary evaluations for children experiencing complex psychiatric, behavioral, cognitive, social, emotional, and/or educational difficulties.
The DART evaluation includes psychological, educational, psychiatric, speech and language, occupational therapy, or other assessment components to best understand the needs of the child.
Youth are typically referred by school districts and parents and may be observed in the home or classroom setting.
Sara Schoonover, PsyD, director, notes that the team conducts evaluations and confers with one another, adding depth to the assessment and bringing together observation and evaluation findings to inform diagnostic impressions or identify areas for further exploration.
The program offers treatment options, including programs such as Wheeler's Parent Connections or its Northwest Village School, a therapeutic day school in Plainville serving students ages 5 through 22 with social, emotional, or academic challenges.

Statistics:

The Autism Diagnostic Evaluation Program serves youth ages 3 to 21.
The program measures cognitive, adaptive, social, and behavioral functioning through clinical assessments and observations.
The Diagnostic Assessment and Referral Team (DART) provides evaluations for children experiencing complex psychiatric, behavioral, cognitive, social, emotional, and/or educational difficulties.
The DART evaluation includes multiple assessment components, including psychological, educational, psychiatric, speech and language, occupational therapy, or other assessments.
The program has a direct referral process from families only, but is available to provide information and guidance to other referral sources.

Sources:

Wheeler Clinic