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Autism Testing in Charlottesville, Richmond, and Harrisonburg Virginia<\/h1>\n

Over the past years, we\u2019ve sat down with a number of parents and adults to share\u2014for the first time\u2014that their child or they themselves were on the spectrum.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s surprising.\u00a0 How can my child have autism if no teachers have ever waved a flag at school?\u00a0 How can my child have autism if they talk with people?\u00a0 How can my child have autism if they\u2019re not consistently in a corner and flapping their hands?\u00a0 How can I have autism if I\u2019m a married and successful professional?\u00a0 As one woman recently said (and better than we could), \u201cSorry, but I don\u2019t want to work up the courage to finally get assessed and then be told I can\u2019t possibly have autism because I\u2019m not a five-year-old Caucasian male who likes trains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our understanding of autism is growing, and our assessment of autism is shifting.\u00a0 Our job and passion is this: providing a super-thorough evaluation.\u00a0 Not missing any details.\u00a0 And making sure this evaluation leads to both understanding and growth.\u00a0 This could be helping parents navigate supports at school, helping them shift routines at home, helping a college student access accommodations, helping an adult find balance at work and navigate accommodations there, or simply help a relationship or marriage become more sustainable.<\/p>\n

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Wesley Shelley & Associates<\/span>
Offices in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, & Richmond, VA\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Autism testing for kids, teens, and adults<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Autism testing includes a lot.\u00a0 For kids and teens, we start with a parent interview that’s often between one and one-and-a-half hours.\u00a0 It’s during this time that we clarify goals for the evaluation and what progress looks like, so that we can keep focused on this end goal.\u00a0 After this, there is the direct testing session with a child or teen–this usually lasts two hours.\u00a0 For adults, we combine these two meetings, so plan on three to four hours.\u00a0 It’s a lot, but being super-thorough is important for us. For adults, it’s important for us to hear from people who know them well: a friend, a parent, a spouse, even a counselor.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because although we try our best to understand our clients, there is something to be said about a person who’s known you for years and years.\u00a0 That’s certainly longer than four hours!\u00a0 Because there is no single test for autism, it’s important to triangulate results.\u00a0 So, in addition to interviews and an interview-style assessment (like the MIGDAS or ADOS), we typically have clients and\/or parents complete questionnaires.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, after everything is said and done, we forward you a report and set up a day and time to review results.\u00a0 For children and teens, we’re happy to offer informing sessions for them.\u00a0 To help them wrap their head around what all this means.\u00a0 And it’s at these meetings when we come up with a gameplan to move forward.\u00a0 What we don’t want to do is dump-truck our clients, as in “Here are two dozen recommendations for you, now good luck!”\u00a0 This is ridiculous.\u00a0 So, we talk through recommendations and–most importantly–we prioritize.\u00a0 We make sure that the plan moving forward is clear and do-able.\u00a0 No dump-trucking here.<\/p>\n

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Why choose us for autism testing?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We’ve worked in the field long enough to know this: not all evaluations are created equal.\u00a0 We have two simple goals.\u00a0 First, we go to great efforts to empower our clients with knowledge and understanding.\u00a0 That’s why we strive to make our reports clear, detailed, and also accessible.\u00a0 No psycho-babble jargon.\u00a0 After all, the more our clients understand about themselves and their brain, the more empowered they are.\u00a0 Our second goal is this: making this process personal.\u00a0 We’ve worked in enough systems to know that sometimes–oftentimes–evaluations can be rushed, and evaluations should NEVER be rushed.\u00a0 We value truly taking our time to understand each one of our clients–whether it’s a family with a little kid, a teenager who’s not so sure he even wants an evaluation, or a college student or adult who’s skated by for years.\u00a0 Evaluations shouldn’t be rushed, and we are a small business who values connection and relationship.<\/p>\n

Also know this, I (Wes) do not believe in hiring psychologists.\u00a0 I do, however, believe in training psychologists.\u00a0 What I mean is this, the values that I have are the values that my staff have.\u00a0 And their passion and–more importantly–their skills, these are top notch.\u00a0 Because I have supervised each of them for over a year, because we check in regularly about serving clients well, we check in about doing better and being better.\u00a0 After all, in this world there is goodness and beauty in doing our job well, no matter the job.\u00a0 I see clients in Charlottesville, Rick primarily sees clients in Richmond, and Jess and Anna primarily see clients in Harrisonburg.\u00a0 For a bit more info about each of us, see our about<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

One more thing.\u00a0 We also leave space in our schedules to support families after the evaluation process.\u00a0 For kids, this could mean helping parents navigate support at school, whether this is 504 accommodations, Special Education, or similar.\u00a0 We can and do even attend school meetings with parents.\u00a0 Or, maybe this is tweaking how we parent kids who–let’s be honest–can be really challenging to parent.\u00a0 For teens and adults, there are times when we meet with them after testing–like setting up new rhythms and routines so that college starts to go better.\u00a0 We’re flexible, and not many of our clients and families have the same exact needs, but we’re here to listen and make sure they are supported for the long haul.<\/p>\n

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“We recently went through Wesley Shelley, Anna Weaver, to have our child tested for being on the spectrum and having anxiety. Anna met with us as parents first, followed by our child. During both sessions, she made us feel completely comfortable as we maneuvered through the questions, some of them emotionally difficult. Anna made our child feel affirmed in the struggles and feelings, so our child’s answers were sincere. The responses given by Anna were balanced between affirmation and hope. Following the diagnosis, our child has been through months of counseling with Anna that have provided significant understanding, clarity, and tools to move forward. We were looking for ways to understand how our child processes, followed by tools to move forward. All these expectations were met. Understanding the spectrum can be scary and intimidating, but working with this group has made this process manageable and hopeful. I highly recommend anyone with anxiety and autism (and more) to seek out the services of this group. They were also timely and responsive through the process.”<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_blurb][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”4.17.6″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/wesleyshelley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/school-psychologist.png” alt=”Psychological Testing Richmond” title_text=”school psychologist” align_tablet=”center” align_phone=”center” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.17.6″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
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Costs and insurance for autism testing<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Our current fee for an autism evaluation is $1,900.<\/p>\n

Autism evaluations are investments.\u00a0 Most are literally four hours of face-to-face time.\u00a0 Add to that interviews with parents, teachers, sifting through all the data, writing the report, and taking time to review results with you\u2014it\u2019s a lot.\u00a0 And for kids we often set aside a time to review results with them, and in a way that they can understand.\u00a0 I have no doubt that you’d be able to find autism testing for less money, and I also have no doubt that you’d be able to find autism testing for more.\u00a0 But please know this, our fees are based on our core mission: to provide an excellent evaluation.\u00a0 This takes a lot more time than most, but we’ve heard from people time-and-again that it’s worth it.<\/p>\n

Since we are an out-of-network provider, we do not accept insurance.\u00a0 Our services are considered self-pay.\u00a0 However, we are flexible, we do offer payment plans, and we gladly accept HSA and FSA cards.\u00a0 For more specific details, check out our fees<\/a>\u00a0page.<\/p>\n

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What Next?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Have more questions about autism testing?\u00a0 Or, ready to schedule an appointment?\u00a0 Use the link below to schedule a phone call, or send us a message here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Autism Testing in Charlottesville, Richmond, and Harrisonburg Virginia Over the past years, we\u2019ve sat down with a number of parents and adults to share\u2014for the first time\u2014that their child or they themselves were on the spectrum.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s surprising.\u00a0 How can my child have autism if no teachers have ever waved a flag at school?\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"

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