Can my child be assessed for autism and ADHD at the same time?

Yes. A child can be diagnosed with both autism and ADHD; UK clinical guidance (NICE) tells assessors to check for the other condition. Whether it's one combined assessment or two referrals depends on your local pathway.

Both can be diagnosed, and the same child often has both

Autism and ADHD frequently sit together, and one does not rule out the other. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, the body that sets NHS clinical guidance) is explicit on this. Its ADHD guideline says ADHD should not be ruled out just because a child is autistic, and that autistic people should be assessed for ADHD as a condition that can coexist. Its autism guideline tells clinicians to consider ADHD during an autism assessment, both as a possible alternative explanation and as a coexisting condition, and to arrange the right follow-up where ADHD is suspected. So the guidance points the other way from "pick one": assessors are meant to look for the second condition rather than ignore it.

Why some parents are still told to choose one

If a school SENCO (the teacher in charge of special educational needs) or a clinic has told you they only assess for autism or ADHD, that is usually about how the local service is set up, not about whether a dual diagnosis is allowed. The older diagnostic rulebook used in the UK did once bar diagnosing both. That changed in 2013, when the DSM-5 manual removed the rule that stopped autism and ADHD being recorded together (The Transmitter). Both can now be formally co-diagnosed, so a diagnosis of one does not close the door on the other.

One assessment or two: it depends on your area

What varies is the route, not the rule. Broadly, you will meet one of two local set-ups:

• A combined neurodevelopmental pathway that looks at autism and ADHD together through a single referral.
• Two separate pathways, where autism and ADHD are referred and seen as different assessments, sometimes by different teams.

Where the routes are split, you may need to ask your GP for a referral to each, and flag in writing that you suspect both so neither gets dropped. Being eligible for an assessment is not the same as a diagnosis: the assessment decides whether the criteria are met, and a child may come out with one diagnosis, both, or neither.

The catch: waiting times and Right to Choose

The honest qualifier the top results miss is access. Standard NHS neurodevelopmental waits are long. In Birmingham, for example, children were waiting roughly 32 months for an autism assessment and around 19 months for ADHD in 2026 (Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS), and two-to-four-year waits are common elsewhere. In England, Right to Choose lets you pick an NHS-funded provider, and these providers often offer a combined autism and ADHD assessment. But it is not a guaranteed route: as of late 2025, at least nine local NHS areas had paused new Right to Choose neurodevelopmental referrals, with some pauses expected to run into April 2026 (Special Needs Jungle), so check whether it is open where you live before you rely on it. Our siblings on who can refer your child for an autism assessment and how to get your child assessed for ADHD on the NHS walk through each route.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.