Our Services
Adult Autism Evaluations
Understanding Yourself Through a New Lens
For many adults, the question of autism comes after years - or even decades - of feeling different without fully understanding why. At Developmental Neuropsychology Associates, our goal is not simply to determine whether you meet diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder. We want to help you develop a deeper and more compassionate understanding of how your brain works, what you need, and why certain experiences may have been difficult throughout your life.
A Neurodiversity-Affirming, Person-Centered Approach
You may have learned how to navigate social situations by carefully observing others. You may appear highly capable while privately feeling exhausted by the effort it takes to keep up. Sensory experiences, changes in routine, relationships, work demands, or everyday expectations may feel harder than they seem to for other people.
Autism can look very different in adulthood than many traditional descriptions suggest. Some autistic adults have spent years consciously or unconsciously masking their differences. They may have successful careers, meaningful relationships, or strong academic histories while simultaneously experiencing significant internal effort, anxiety, sensory overwhelm, burnout, or difficulty navigating everyday demands.This is particularly important when evaluating adults whose autism may have been overlooked earlier in life.
Our evaluations consider the whole person and their developmental story, rather than relying on any single test, questionnaire, or stereotype of what autism is supposed to look like. We approach assessment collaboratively and with curiosity. The goal is not to look for deficits, but to understand patterns of strengths, differences, challenges, and support needs.
What We Explore
Every evaluation is individualized based on your history and the questions you hope to answer. Depending on your needs, an adult autism evaluation may explore:
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Social communication and relationship patterns
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Sensory experiences and sensitivities
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Preference for routine, predictability, and sameness
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Focused or highly developed interests
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Executive functioning and attention
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Emotional regulation
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Masking and compensatory strategies
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Experiences of overwhelm or burnout
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Developmental history and childhood experiences
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Adaptive functioning and everyday demands
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Anxiety, ADHD, and other conditions that may overlap with or accompany autism
We also consider how your strengths and challenges interact across different environments—including work, relationships, family life, and daily responsibilities.
What You'll Leave With
Whether or not the evaluation results in an autism diagnosis, our goal is for you to leave with a clearer understanding of yourself. Your feedback session and written report will help explain:
How you process the world.
We identify meaningful patterns in the way you think, communicate, regulate, and respond to your environment.
Your strengths.
An evaluation shouldn't only catalog areas of difficulty. We want to identify the abilities, strategies, and characteristics that have helped you navigate your life.
Why certain things may be harder.
Experiences that have previously felt confusing or disconnected can sometimes make much more sense when viewed within a developmental and neurodivergent framework.
What may help.
When appropriate, we provide individualized recommendations for therapy, executive functioning supports, sensory needs, workplace accommodations, relationships, and everyday life.
More than a Test Score
There is no single test that can capture the experience of being autistic.
Our assessment process integrates clinical interview, developmental history, standardized measures, behavioral observations, and—when helpful and available—information from someone who knew you during childhood.
We recognize that childhood records or an available parent or caregiver aren't always accessible for adults. We work with the information available to develop the most thoughtful and clinically informed understanding possible.
Most importantly, we want the evaluation to feel like a collaborative process rather than something being done to you.
