Originally known as the Centre for Social and Communication Disorders, the Lorna Wing Centre for Autism in Kent was one of the first centres to provide a complete diagnostic, assessment and advice service for children, adolescents and adults with social and communication disorders throughout the UK.
The centre is named after Dr Lorna Wing, who was involved in our charity from its very earliest days and co-founded our first centre in Kent with Dr Judith Gould in 1991. The centre was set up because parents of children suspected to be autistic, as well as other related conditions, often had major problems accessing a diagnostic assessment or an explanation for their child's behaviour.
What services do we offer?
We offer a range of specialist diagnostic and assessment services for children, young people and adults, using the Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders (The DISCO) framework.
Children and adults, together with their parents or carers are seen for a whole or half day. We take a detailed developmental history using The DISCO framework. This is a semi-structured interview designed to find out about the person's history up to current day-to-day functioning. At the same time, we carry out an in-depth assessment with the child or adult concerned. We also collect information from previous assessments and any other relevant sources.
We bring together all this information to formulate a clear diagnosis and recommendation of needs and prepare in-depth reports. We take care to consider the interventions already in place and think about where it might be possible to endorse current practice. If we think further intervention or new options for a person are necessary, we give guidance for consideration.
