Successful treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is entirely contingent on an accurate diagnosis. Although many resources exist to help the clinician with differential diagnosis of children, particularly in early childhood, the resources available for evaluating adolescents and adults is far less prevalent. Clinicians often rely on multiple forms of data from numerous sources to make accurate diagnoses, which for adults is a complex process. Lack of availability of instruments that have been normed with individuals with ASD creates limitations for the clinician. In addition, gathering background information from adolescents and adults on the spectrum can be challenging for a number of reasons, including poor self-reporting and poor memory for events from parents or caregivers. To further complicate the matter, comorbid conditions become more and more common as the individual with ASD goes through adolescence and adulthood. This article aims to identify the challenges related to the evaluation of adolescents and adults with ASD, noting particular attention to the differential diagnosis of common comorbid conditions. Recommendations for how to conduct a thorough psychological evaluation with an adolescent or adult with an ASD are made. C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC) are the most widely used instrument in assessing cognitive ability, especially with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous literature on the WISC has demonstrated a divergent pattern of performance on the WISC for children ASD compared to their typically developing peers; however, there is a lack of research concerning the most recent iteration, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V). Due to the distinctive changes made to the WISC-V, we sought to identify the pattern of performance of children with ASD on the WISC-V using a classification and regression (CART) analysis. The current study used the standardization sample data of the WISC-V obtained from NCS Pearson, Inc. Sixty-two children diagnosed with ASD, along with their demographically matched controls, comprised the sample. Results revealed the Comprehension and Letter-Number Sequencing subtests were the most important factors in predicting group membership for children with ASD with an accompanying language impairment. Children with ASD without an accompanying language impairment, however, were difficult to distinguish from matched controls through the CART analysis. Results suggest school psychologists and other clinicians should administer all primary and supplemental subtests of the WISC-V as part of a comprehensive assessment of ASD.

Interprofessional collaboration is an important approach in providing quality care to patients by healthcare professionals. Interprofessional collaboration is common in healthcare organizations such as hospitals and long-term healthcare facilities where each professional of the healthcare team contributes to the overall healthcare plan for the patient. But, little research or discussion how interprofessional collaboration is implemented within the school systems exist. This article looks at interprofessional collaboration within the schools and how the school nurse can facilitate collaboration among healthcare and education professionals to ultimately benefit students. This first article, in a series of three, will define and discuss frameworks and models of interprofessional collaboration.

This article is the second in a series of three articles discussing the importance of interprofessional collaboration between the school nurse and other school-based and community professionals to create a healthcare team. Developing the healthcare team begins with identifying the individual medical, mental health, and educational needs of the student. Expertise in both education and healthcare systems makes school nurses ideal candidates for coordinating with the healthcare team to meet the needs of the student. This article builds on the first article by providing some examples of the collaboration that occurs between the school nurse and other team members, as well as identifying facilitators and barriers to this collaboration.

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