The Evolution of Assessment: It's More Than Just a Score
About this episode
The episode discusses the evolving landscape of autism assessment and the challenges of identifying camouflaged traits, particularly in women and girls.
As public understanding of neurodiversity continues to grow, evaluators face a shifting landscape when assessing clients whose traits don't match traditional, less nuanced pictures of autism. Many individuals—especially women and girls—learn to navigate daily social interactions through pattern recognition and learned strategies rather than intuitive processing, masking their traits enough to miss early identification. Dr. Jeremy Sharp, a licensed psychologist, founder of the Colorado Center for Assessment, and host of the Testing Psychologist Podcast, joins Emily to unpack the realities of camouflaging and what it takes to catch these less obvious presentations during a diagnostic evaluation. TAKEAWAYS The increasing prevalence of self-identification and online research requires evaluators to look beyond traditional, high-support presentation models when assessing for autism. Camouflaging and masking rely on active cognitive problem-solving and pattern recognition rather than intuitive social processing, creating high internal fatigue that standard testing environments can miss. Structured, one-on-one assessment settings can artificially boost a person's immediate social…
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- Learning Differences And Emotional Well-Being Aren't Separate, and Here's Why
- Autistic Girls Are Going Undiagnosed or Misdiagnosed
- The Right to Be Heard: Reclaiming Communication Autonomy
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