Multidisciplinary assessment - can anyone talk me through it?

[bamboobuddha]

Some background: DS is 3.7yo. We had concerns about delayed speech from the age of 2. This led to speech therapist assessment, then paediatrician assessment because of broader developmental concerns. Following multiple appointments, assessments and bouts of speech therapy, the paediatrician put DS on the "Social Communication Pathway" last summer as he turned 3. We were told this would culminate in a full assessment by a number of health professionals, and take on board input from his new pre-school teacher. This took place in January, but in the form of a panel assessment without us or DS being present - it was basically a review of all the previous reports on DS, plus a new report from his teacher.

They wrote to us shortly after to tell us that the diagnosis was still not clear.They said that normally they would offer DS an additional "multidisciplinary assessment", but as we were shortly moving overseas, they recommended we follow this up in our new setting. We've called repeatedly to ask for the paediatrician to call us back to give us more information on what was discussed, the sorts of diagnoses they were considering and what a multi-disciplinary assessment would involve, but have heard nothing so far. Very frustrating, and it feels that after a long process in the UK, we now have to start from scratch again overseas, without really knowing what we should be asking for.

Could anyone who has been through a "multi-disciplinary assessment" with a child of a similar age let me know what this might involve? Would it be a one-off appointment with a panel of health professionals (speech therapist / paediatrician / occupational health therapist?), or a series of separate appointments over a number of months, or just an appointment with a paediatrician?

The UK paediatrician at no time mentioned possible diagnoses, but reading between the lines I have assumed that we're looking at whether DS has ASD or sensory processing disorder (presumably at the mild end of the spectrum if they couldn't take a clear diagnosis).

Thanks for any help you can give - getting information out of the system has been a disheartening process .