Personalized Lifespan Approach to Autism Assessment: A Clinical and System Framework for Developmentally Informed...

The increasing prevalence of autism has led to considerable system challenges as specialist-driven approaches have struggled to keep pace. Recent research has challenged status quo models by demonstrating that community-based pediatric clinicians can accurately diagnose autism in young children. This research provides an opportunity to further expand capacity of community systems to conduct developmentally relevant, context-specific assessments of autistic people over their lifespan. In this Commentary, we propose a personalized lifespan approach to autism assessment as a precision care and system organization framework that considers the ongoing and evolving needs of autistic people and aligns the necessary expertise and resources to provide focused assessment when it is most informative. This framework consists of three key principles: (1) assessment is not a one-time, one-size-fits-all event; instead, assessment continues across the lifespan; (2) assessments should generate information that is relevant to the individual's current needs and life stage; and (3) wherever possible, community-based expertise should be engaged to promote the right assessment at the right time in the right place. Adopting this framework can reduce system access challenges, while also addressing the ongoing assessment needs of an autistic person across their life course.