Course Description
This CPD training equips psychologists and allied health professionals to navigate differential diagnosis in Autism and ADHD presentations. It focuses on presentations where neurodevelopmental differences overlap with other conditions, where diagnostic overshadowing occurs, and where symptoms are frequently misattributed in clinical practice.
You will learn to move beyond surface-level symptom matching and strengthen your clinical reasoning when working with complex, ambiguous, and high-masking presentations.
You will work through a structured 5-step system for differential diagnosis, beginning with a clear understanding of what differential diagnosis actually involves. The course covers how Autism, ADHD, and AuDHD profiles overlap and differ from each other, and how to distinguish them from anxiety disorders, OCD, personality disorders, trauma-related conditions, eating disorders, intellectual disability, tic disorders, PMDD, ODD, DMDD, and reactive attachment disorder.
Emphasis is placed on determining when a co-occurring diagnosis is clinically supported versus when diagnostic clarity requires ruling out alternative explanations.
By the end of the training, you will have a structured and defensible approach to differential diagnosis that reflects neurodiversity-affirming principles and strengthens your confidence in complex clinical decision-making.
Learning Objectives
By completing this CPD training, you will be able to:
- Apply a structured 5-step framework to differential diagnosis in Autism and ADHD assessments
- Distinguish between symptom overlap, diagnostic misattribution, and true co-occurring conditions across complex presentations
- Identify how Autism, ADHD, and AuDHD profiles present when co-occurring with anxiety disorders, obsessive and compulsive disorders, personality disorders, trauma-related conditions, eating disorders, intellectual disability, and other overlapping diagnoses
- Analyse clinical data to determine whether behaviours are better explained by neurodevelopmental differences, psychiatric conditions, environmental factors, or their interaction
- Strengthen diagnostic confidence in complex, ambiguous, and high-masking cases
- Apply neurodiversity-affirming principles to differential diagnosis and case conceptualisation
Terms of Purchase
Please find the terms of purchase for this online training program. These terms were agreed to at the time of purchase.