Understanding families’ anxieties about their child going through an online autism assessment

Purpose: Online autism assessments are an effective way to help tackle the ever growing waitlist to be assessed. However, research has shown that families maintain a preference for face-to-face assessments. We examined families' anxieties both before and after having an online assessment to determine whether any initial concerns are due to a lack of exposure and information surrounding online assessments, as opposed to the quality of the assessment itself. We also aimed to understand how referral services can help families choose an online autism assessment for their child. Methods: 358 families with a child who received an online autism assessment through Healios rated their satisfaction with the service from the point of referral through to when they received the diagnostic outcome. Results: Upon entering the online assessment service, families tended to worry about the quality they expected to receive. However, after exiting the service, families held significantly higher expectations about the quality of future online autism assessments. Furthermore, families were highly satisfied throughout the entire service, except for at the point of referral. Conclusions: Our research shows families initially expect lower quality from online autism assessments, which is contrary to their high satisfaction levels upon completion. We emphasise the need for referral services to better educate families about the quality and the benefits of online autism assessments, and provide specific recommendations about what information families would like to receive to help ease their anxieties about their child receiving an online assessment.