Reference no: EM132221942 , Length: word count:3000

Assignment - ESSAY Descriptive Title: Diagnostic Evaluation of Harry

Learning Outcomes -

• Knowledge and Understanding.
• Intellectual, practical, effective and transferable skills.

Assessment Description - This assessment is designed to allow you to conduct a preliminary diagnosis of a child suspected to have autism spectrum disorder. The full diagnostic assessment would take place over days or weeks and would take many hours. This assignment is using parts of the diagnostic process to enable you to gain a feel for how the procedure operates. What we are looking for is your ability to structure a report in a coherent manner and to justify your decisions and options with published research evidence.

The assignment asks you to carry out the following tasks:

• Offer a preliminary diagnosis of a 11-year-old boy called Harry.
• Provide supporting evidence from research literature for your diagnosis.
• Evaluate the diagnostic process.
• Offer an evaluation of prognosis.

What you are being assessed on

• Your ability to present information in a clear and logical manner.
• Your ability to work with several different sources of information and integrate them effectively.
• Your ability to substantiate your ideas and arguments with reference to published research.
• Your ability to offer a critical evaluation on the diagnostic procedure.

Background - Harry is an 11-year-old boy. He lives with his mother, father and elder brother in a borough located in the South of London. Recently Harry's parents were invited into Harry's school to have a chat with the headmistress. Harry is academically bright in some areas. He has achieved very good grades in maths, but he is falling behind in English and struggles with this subject. His English teacher has noted that Harry does not display much imagination and tends to be very literal. He shows some difficulty with reading tasks, and he has problems pronouncing some words. The school has noticed problems with Harry's behaviour outside of the classroom. He is often found wondering, seemingly lost, in the corridors, and teachers have remarked on his general lack of organisation. Harry tends not to be very popular with his classmates, and has a tendency to speak his mind and offend them. He does not enjoy playing games, and tends to spend playtime on his own. One teacher has reported that Harry can have quite violent temper tantrums, but another teacher has remarked on his calmness and placidity.

According to his parents, Harry's early childhood was unremarkable. He was always a very quiet baby and very rarely cried. They had concerns about his development, when he failed to reach the normal milestones for speech. He did not use any recognisable words until the age of 3 years when he used his first word, which was crocodile. However, his language began to pick up rapidly and he was using phrase speech by the age of 4 years. Although Harry is understandable, his language level lags behind his chronological age. Rather like his older brother, Harry did not play many imaginative games. He did not like dressing up, and never played pretend games. Instead, he would play with Lego and had a very large toy car collection. His parents noted that he was a very tidy child, and would have all his cars lined up in order of size in his bedroom. Harry did go through a phase of collecting washing powder packets, and he would insist his mother bought a different packet of washing powder each week. He even collects packets from different countries. However, he grew out of this by the age of six.

Due to the concerns raised by the school, Harry's parents decided to take him to a paediatrician for a clinical evaluation. You have been given access to parts of the overall evaluation and must decide on a diagnosis.

Suggestions - Watch the video of the diagnostic procedure. This represents only a small part of the total diagnosis. The full-length version can be between 2 and 3 hours. Don't worry that you do not have all of the information. We are not assessing you on the accuracy of your diagnosis, but we are assessing you on how you justify your diagnosis.

After watching the video a few times, look at the complimentary information provided. Here you have a report on Harry's verbal and nonverbal intelligence. Non-verbal intelligence has been assessed using the Raven's Progressive Matrices and verbal intelligence is assessed using the British Picture Vocabulary Scale. We have also provided you with a print out of Harry's scores on the Vineland Adaptive behaviour Scales, which you will need to interpret.

The information should allow you to suggest whether Harry has an autism spectrum disorder and assess his current levels of intellectual and social functioning. This extra information should help inform your diagnosis and inform your information relating to his prognosis. It is important that you base your diagnosis on the current definition of autism spectrum disorder as outlined in the DSM 5.

You should write the report for another academic, and present your material for this level of understanding.

Setting out your report - Below is a suggested structure for your report. We are happy for you to use your own structure, if you think that it is more appropriate or conveys your message in a clearer manner.

The report should contain:

• An overview of Harry
• A preliminary diagnosis based on the evidence you have at hand. This should be supported with evidence form published research, and should make full use of the DSM 5 criteria.
• Details of prognosis based on current research evidence. This will draw on the strengths and weakness of Harry drawn from his assessments.
• A critical evaluation of the diagnostic procedure, which you have completed as part of the assignment. This should be back up with evidence from published papers and books. This would not form part of a diagnostic assessment and is being used her as an academic tool to encourage your critical evaluation skills.

Resources

• Video of part of a diagnostic interview (accessed on the VLE site).
• Results from the Raven's progressive matrices (given as a hand out).
• Results from the BPVS (given as a hand out).
• Results from the Vineland Adaptive behaviour scale (given as a hand out).