Information for clinicians

The average time to diagnose autism is 3.5 years. This is a long time for a young child.

Through the Monash ASD/ADHD Genetics and Neurodevelopment (MAGNET) Project, we would like to help children with ADHD and/or ASD, aged between 4-18 years, to give them a better understanding of their complex symptoms, and a happy life.

In order to do this, we need to find objective, behavioural “signatures” that define ADHD-ASD subtypes, which we hope in the future will help speed up diagnosis, and improve diagnostic reliability. We also are interested in how genetics may be involved in the symptoms we see across children with ASD and ADHD.

And, for this, we respectfully request your help.

How you can be involved

We are looking for clinicians who would like to be involved in research to assist us with referring families to the MAGNET study. This would include briefly explaining the study to participants, and giving them a copy of the study material that we provide you. They can then make contact with us to take part.

As part of the study, we may contact the participants' referring clinician for access to previous medical records relating to their diagnosis and previous assessments. This is simply so we don't burden families with any unnecessary duplication of assessments.

If you would like to be involved in our study, please email us at med.magnetstudy@monash.edu

What assessments will participants complete?

  • SRS and CPRS rating scales for ASD and ADHD
  • CELF-5 Screening test
  • Vineland adaptive behaviour scale
  • A cognitive assessment, if one was completed
  • Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), if one was completed
  • Speech & language assessment, if one was completed
  • Spence Children's Anxiety Scale, if one was completed

What if the child does not yet have an ASD and/or ADHD diagnosis?

Families can take part in the study if they have seen their paediatrician, and the pediatrician has indicated the child may have ASD and/or ADHD and is currently seeking further assessment.

We provide a report to families with clinically relevant information. We require families to have a treating clinician because the report we provide is not diagnostic; it must be interpreted by a clinician.