Social communication and social skills assessments

Social communication and social skills are both important within social development and some conditions such as autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) which is why we assess them together.

Who is suitable for a social communication and social skills assessment?

There are many reasons when a social communication and social skills assessment would be necessary. The most common children and young people we assess are those who:

Display poor or non existent social skills
Have delayed social skills
Struggle with classroom demands
Have difficulty making eye contact
Struggle to follow gestures
Have difficulty interacting with peers

Some people may choose to have a social communication and social skills assessment in order to rule out a social communication difficulty or to identify the cause of challenges in various settings.

Dr Julie Alfrey carrying out part of a social skills assessment with a child

Autistic spectrum condition (ASC) services

We help children and young people with autistic spectrum conditions (ASC)

Assessments
Reports
Interventions

Find out more

What are the benefits of a social communication and social skills assessment?

Social communication and social skills impact many areas of life, and our assessments bring a broad range of benefits through:

Targeted support strategies
Improved friendships
Communication strategies
Increased understanding of needs
Increased independence

Following an assessment we can provide parents, carers, and education professionals with the skills they need in order to support children and young people.

What happens prior to a social communication and social skills assessment?

A social communication and social skills assessment can be carried out following an initial discussion, please see our process below.

Hide all

Show all

Our process

At HSR Psychology we ensure that we meet the needs of children and young people. To achieve this we ensure that any specific assessments, intervention, or direct work, is only carried out following an initial discussion.

An initial discussion allows us to understand the background and your expectations of our involvement. Having an initial discussion ensures any services we provide appropriately identify or address needs.

Our process for any specific assessments, intervention, or direct work is as follows:

Step 1: Contact us

We will usually be contacted by the child or young person, parent or carer, or another professional (eg education or health).

You can contact us or complete a referral

Step 2: Arrange an initial discussion

An initial discussion allows us to understand the background and your expectations of our involvement. Arrange an initial discussion

Step 3: Review our recommendations

Following an initial discussion we will send you an email that includes:

Next steps recommendations - to provide a bespoke package of support. For example:

Assessments
Reports
Information gathering
Meeting
Interventions
Consultancy
Reviews

Costing - we will provide costings for any services recommended.

Step 4: Let's get started

On receipt of the next steps recommendations and costing you can decide how to proceed. Once you have decided contact us to arrange the chosen services.

What happens during a social communication and social skills assessment?

During a social communication and social skills assessment we would assess how a child or young person interacts with others, deals with social situations and how they perceive social situations. Assessing these areas help to understand where any challenging areas for an individual.

Which social communication and social skills assessments do we use?

The specific assessments used will be chosen based on the individual and their needs. The main social communication and social skills assessments we use are:

ACE - Assessment of comprehension and expression provides information about language ability, and measures; verbal comprehension, expression, grammar, semantic and pragmatic knowledge
ADOS - Autism diagnostic observation schedule can be used to identify autistic spectrum conditions (ASC) with a range of language abilities. It looks at; communication, social interaction, play, restricted and repetitive behaviours
ADI-R - Autism diagnostic interview - revised is a clinical interview used with parents, carers and young people and it investigates; language and communication, reciprocal social interactions, restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behaviours and interests
TASIT - The awareness of social inference test can be used from age 14 and measures; emotion evaluation and social inference
SSIS - Social skills improvement system helps to measure; communication, co-operation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, engagement, self-control, externalising, bullying, internalising and academic competence

Observations are also very useful tools when assessing social communication and social skills.

What happens after a social communication and social skills assessment?

Following a social communication and social skills assessment we would highlight areas of strength and needs. We would also be able to make recommendations for the future, including interventions, onwards referral and strategies.

Does a social communication and social skills assessment come with a report?

As part of our bespoke service we offer a variety of report styles for our assessments. Our social communication and social skills assessment can provide a brief report, a comprehensive report or a recommendations report. Learn more about the reports we offer.

Arrange an initial discussion.....

Arrange an initial discussion to find out how we can benefit your education setting. The initial discussion lasts 2 hours and is a starting point to identify needs. The cost is £260.

No waiting lists
Experienced psychologists
Includes recommendation summary

Find out more

only

£260