Saidi Clemente, MD 584 Forest Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10310

"This review is based on my visit with Clemente early last year. Clemente conducted a parent interview which lasted roughly 10-15 minutes. She then sat with my son, who at the time was 4, and spoke to him for THREE MINUTES. She asked him 1. Who his friends were 2. How many teachers he had and 3. What their names were. My son answered 5 (he was in an ICT classroom with 2 teachers and 3 assistants so he was correct). At NO point did she use an assessment tool to diagnose. She immediately diagnosed him with Moderate Autism and a significant language delay, in less than 30 minutes. I myself am a Speech Language evaluator who works with psychologists, they have NEVER simply asked parents questions and made an assumption in such a small amount of time, especially because Autism is a diagnosis that most do not take lightly. In addition, even IF I felt a child had a language disorder (and was correct) I always use an assessment tool to demonstrate to parents where my findings are coming from. Moving forward, I asked her if she felt my son would do well in the NYU Nest OR Horizon program. She said and I quote “NO BECAUSE HIS LANGUAGE IS TOO DELAYED BUT MY DAUGHTER GOES THERE AND IT IS A PHENOMENAL PROGRAM.” Before I left her office, I asked her what assessment tool she was using to assess my son and diagnose him with autism. She told me she did not use any assessment tool and if I needed her to do so, I would need to set up a separate appointment to use the ADOS (which is considered the ‘gold standard’ when it comes to diagnosing autism). Suffice to say I left that office defeated and ultimately lost in what direction to take next. Fast forward to today, my son was recently accepted into the NYU Program because I had a neuropsychological completed and someone who actually took time, effort, and appropriate diagnostic tools to work with my child to find out what he had and what he needed. Because I listened to this horrid woman my son missed the whole fall semester at this incredible program. Every professional I have spoken to has told me that Saudi Clemente is NOT qualified to make any decision regarding the NYU program and how belittling and incompetent it is to make such a quick diagnosis and also rub in a parents face that her daughter goes to the program and say that my son couldn’t. It took me forever to write this review, but better late than never, avoid if you can but if you have no other choice like I did, know what your child deserves."