practical assessments
Let’s Look
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Finally get the right kind of support.
Short-term, play-based assessment with tailored guidance for next steps and practical tips for educational advocacy.
Neurodiversity-affirming assessment and recommendations
Together we’ll connect your child’s unique patterns of emotional regulation with sturdy brain-body-behavior support.
Many families drawn to my work are looking for clarity about what type of support will be the best fit. While I’m certainly prepared to follow your instincts about your child’s needs—part of my job is helping you identify what interventions are likely to be most effective and connect with right-fit supports.
Over many years of practice and training, I’ve developed a unique approach to play-based assessment that takes into account your family dynamics, your child’s current strengths and areas of challenge, and the bigger picture of their social, emotional, and developmental skills, as well as where they could benefit from additional resources or a shift in expectations.
This process helps you become an expert in your child’s patterns and behavior, so you can lean into curiosity about what needs are fueling them, decode their non-verbal cues before things go sideways, and help set them up for success and connection across home, school, peer relationships, camps, sports, and beyond!
Because there’s more than one way to navigate social skills and academic learning—together, we’re embarking on a process of making new connections and predicting stuck spots—so you, and they, can feel more prepared and empowered to meet their needs as they grow.
some questions we can answer together…
Does your child need help with regulation?
Would they benefit from a different approach to setting limits?
Are they showing up with different behaviors between home and school? If so, what accounts for the contrast between settings?
Would they benefit from academic or behavioral coaching?
Could sensory processing challenges be contributing to their overwhelm?
What might bridge the gap between high intelligence or giftedness and specific social-emotional skills?
Does your child meet criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder? I offer a strengths-based screening for social, emotional, and communication differences to help identify supports.
Autism Assessment
I’ve spent the last six years training in and affirming a neurodiversity-affirming approach in my play therapy practice. I have been specifically trained to recognize how autism appears in under-diagnosed populations including girls and non-binary folks, people of color, and intellectually gifted children. I am trained to recognize and assess for how experiences of high anxiety and masking can shape social impressions and developmental history, making autistic traits harder to identify. During the assessment, my cozy daylight playroom will support movement, sensory needs, snack, and breaks.
What can assessment results be used for?
My professional assessment is intended to screen for neurodivergent traits that may meet the diagnostic threshold for Autism Spectrum Disorder. This means the report is sufficient for clinical diagnosis, obtaining an educational 504-Plan, and contributing to the school-based evaluation process for the purpose of obtaining an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), as Portland Public Schools must consider any outside report or other data presented by parents, completed by a licensed professional.
The assessment process does not include any specific expectations for how you proceed with the results, nor any requirement to share the report with school or insurance providers. However, state-regulated insurance plans are mandated to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which effectively necessitates disclosure if you intend to seek reimbursement for services. For SSDI/disability benefits, an assessment including adaptive measures from a doctoral-level clinical psychologist is required.
Background
I’ve trained in neurodiversity-affirming autism assessment with both children and adults with Dr. Emily Haygeman, PhD, at Empower Psychological Services and Dr. Somer Bishop, PhD, co-author of the ADOS-2, through the Global Autism Interactive Network. I hold certifications in the Neurosequential Model of Therapy (Level-II) and several neurodiversity-affirming play therapy models, including AutPlay Therapy, Synergetic Play Therapy, Sandtray Play Therapy, as well as additional training in Understanding PDA (Level-III), Theraplay (a family therapy model), and clinical use of the Adult Attachment Interview with parents.
we can mix & match assessment elements over 3-5 sessions
Play-based family play observationfor social-emotional assessment of whether play therapy may be helpful
Developmental history, including pre-adoption, grief & loss, complex trauma, or medical trauma experiences
Parent support for parent-child relationship building
AutPlay screening for mental health aspects that may be related to neurodivergence
Autism assessment to identify patterns and differences in social, emotional, and communication skills
1-2 Day Intensives
I offer neurodiversity-affirming autism screening for children, ages 2-12, to support parents in identifying and understanding possible neurodevelopmental differences. As a former preschool and alternative high school teacher, I have a background in educational advocacy, understanding behavior challenges from a developmental perspective, and designing practical supports that welcome kids to show up as their whole selves and promote their growth and development from a strengths-based perspective.
The assessment process begins with a free 15-minute phone consultation to share about my approach and answer your questions. You can book a call with me or send an email letting me know you’d like to connect.
autism screening includes…
A total of 4-6 hours over five sessions
Gathering consent paperwork and payment details via my secure client portal
1 hour Initial parent consultation — virtual
Assessment questionnaires — for you + one or two adults who know your child well — completed online from home. You’ll determine whether a teacher, relative, or family friend might be helpful in offering perspective.
90-min Developmental History interview with you/parents— virtual
1 hour play-based assessment — in person — you’ll join your child to observe during this session
Comprehensive written report summarizing your child’s developmental history, assessment results, diagnostic impressions, and a range of personalized recommendations anchored in the report
90-min Collaborative feedback session with parents — virtual — to discuss the report, answering your questions, supporting you in making meaning of the results, and identifying next steps
45-min Family support session with your child — in-person — sharing assessment results with your child to support future conversations at home
why book in-depth assessment over one full day?
By request, I’ve designed a short-term, focused approach to play-based assessment for the whole family. As an alternative to a typical 3-5 appointment series, you can reserve a full- or half-day of support for your whole family—this is the Intensive Assessment option*—including both parent and child support.
You can expect:
Immediately useful reflections on emotional maturity, current stress coping strategies, and executive function strengths
Insights about what needs may be fueling behavior challenges, as well as strategies most likely to be effective
In-depth feedback across important developmental areas of self-regulation, sensory integration, relationship skills, and cognitive problem-solving
Focused parent coaching and portable, flexible tools for regulation and positive communication
Understand your own communication and stress-coping patterns as a starting point for positive shifts toward regulating the whole family
Respectful, neurodiversity-affirming approach to helping your child learn about their own brain and strengths to build on—with conversation starters to keep the discussion going at home & school, as needed
We’ll work together to build a menu of services and gentle schedule, including just what you need.
Play-based assessment, with the nervous system and ages/stages of development in mind
Personalized parent coaching, in conversation with me, or together with your child engaged in play activities
Adult Attachment Interview to help you understand how the ways you were parented may be influencing your parenting—including what you like about that and what you might want to do differently in raising your particular child
Specific recommendations for next steps, including specialty referrals for any follow-up evaluations, therapy, or educational supports we identify together
Specific measures to screen for anxiety, ADHD and/or Autistic traits, by request
Location
We’ll meet at my office / playroom, just off I-84, in NE Portland’s Hollywood District. On-site parking, covered bike racks, and public transit accessible. The building has an elevator and private, all gender restrooms. I’m happy to share some of my favorite nearby food spots, if we’re spending a whole day together!
Investment
Assessment is billed at $200/hour, with a Good Faith Estimate of both time and fees provided at the start of services. Partial reimbursement may be available, depending on your coverage and Out Of Network benefits, for standard assessment and therapy sessions with me (45-60 minutes, including a documented diagnosis); I encourage families to check these benefits before we start. *Please note: Insurance coverage is not available for intensive services.
Meet MereAnn
MereAnn Reid, LPC, RPT, is a licensed professional counselor and clinical supervisor, registered play therapist, and certified AutPlay provider with focused training in developmental assessment.
As a therapist in private practice for 17 years, I’ve been compelled to build a specialty in neurodiversity-affirming assessment and parent support as I’ve come to understand essential overlaps between sensory processing, nervous system regulation, chronic stress, and my own regulation and sensory needs in a highly relational career.
I’m a clinical supervisor supporting fellow play therapists, a Level-II trainer with Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Network—a brain-based, developmentally-sound, attachment-focused approach to assessment, Certified AutPlay provider, Certified Synergetic Play Therapist, Level-III certified clinician in Understanding PDA, and trained in autism assessment with children from toddlers to teens. The empowerment and capacity that comes from blending brain science, sensory-smart play activities, family systems thinking, and support for different ways of learning and communication informs my practice.
