Feel deflated after salt assessment for asc

[yippeekiyay2]

Hi all, wasn't sure whether to post or not but as dh is away at mo I feel I don't have anyone to share this with... Dd (7) had her salt part of the assessment for asc today. It went kind of how I predicted - she is verbally advanced for her age so aced the (extremely basic) picture card tests that she was given. She made fleeting but inconsistent eye contact with the therapist and spent a lot of time rocking in her chair while there and then totally absorbed herself in playing with the toys in the room after the test. She would answer questions when asked tho. The therapist said she didn't see the signs for dx in dd and when I explained the bizarre separating food/eating rituals dd has with some meals she said so she has some quirks! I gave her a comprehensive list I had made up with the concerns specifically around slc and she is going to visit dd at school but was basically alluding to not agreeing with dx. Paed felt strongly she was when he saw her in sept. Thing is dd has a wonderful Sen ta who she started working with on November and has made great improvements from the huge amount of sensory and support input from the ta. I explained all this too. I just feel so frustrated that they can't seem to see how different girls display on the spectrum to boys. She didn't make any notes on the non verbal stuff I was noticing. The whole process takes so long as well we are still waiting for ed psych to go into school then they will all have to meet after that...the therapist was very nice but I just didn't feel she was 'buying it' - but I thought Aspergers/hfa was often verbally sophisticated able to make eye contact/ comminicate etc. We will go private if we have to after this but I was really upset when I got home, not helped by the fact that dh away, nearly 12 wks pregnant and working full time but still, not the way I hoped it would go.. Sorry for the lengthy post!

[Ineedmorepatience]

Did she test her ability to recognise emotions and use the language around them?

Dd3 did really well on some parts of her salts assessments but then it all falls apart in other parts!

In my authority they do a thing called a complex communication assessment which looks at the higher level communication skills which girls and boys with AS often struggle so much with!

[Ineedmorepatience]

Oops sorry, meant to say, sorry it was so hard for you, the salt doesnt seem to have been very supportive and you shouldnt come out of these things feeling like you havent been listened too!

Keep going it can take time! It took us 3.5 yrs to get through the system!

Good luck

[yippeekiyay2]

Thx everyone, she only did a test which involved looking at 2 or 4 similar pics and identifying which one the sentence she said goes with e.g. The toy is inside the box. It was very basic and dd has no issues with processing the language. She would have struggled with emotions, school have been doing lots of work with her on this and she now has the basic ones and is moving on to the more complex emotions. I'm hoping observing her in school will reveal the social difficulties and 'conforming' issues she has. Also the school agree with pursuing the dx and are using all asc strategies, they have also consulted the asc specialist for the lea and he is on board too so I hope these things argue in favour for us. I'm really pleased she is doing well with the current interventions but the dx would help us to protect those and poss argue for more as she gets older. Thanks for the support everyone - I have had a pizza I'd been saving and just had a nice hot shower so feeling slightly better

[Youarentkiddingme]

I would also ask about non verbal stuff. Also ask her to have a general chat.

Ds salt chatted to me and then him. On the basis of this conversation decided to do some of the tests. He was surprised when he came out above age expected for vocabulary etc. He stated its because when testing they use visual cards and so DS is using those and answering questions using his learnt knowledge. He also noted each of DS sentences were very similar and repetitive - again learnt cause and effect language.

He used this to say DS could learn language and what would help but that conversational and 2 way language as well as understanding weren't fluent or age expected without the support. He also noted that the adult (him!) led a lot of the conversation so noted that with peers of same age DS wouldn't have that promoting or support.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas of questions to ask etc about her actual skills vs her tested ability.

[yippeekiyay2]

That's another thing - she didn't really 'chat' to dd at all, didn't really seem to be observing her in any way just wanted to do the picture cards and that was it! The more I have reflected on it today the more angry I am about it, the test didn't seem fit for purpose and when dd couldn't answer a few times she led her to the answer even sounding out the first sound! I will have to wait for a report from her I guess but if I don't agree with it I will feel I have to follow it up in some way but you just feel powerless to do that in any effective way. I just expected them to be more advanced in what they do picking up on things like the lack of greeting/social awareness etc. That the paed picked up on straight away...

[TheSconeOfStone]

I've had the opposite, Just received SALT report along with written confirmation of diagnosis of ASD for my 8 year old DD. DD was within average for most tests, 75th centile for a couple but 'failed' the narrative as she didn't retell a story properly (made up her own). Loads of comments about DD's lack of eye contact, her talking over me and the SALT in the assessment, not recognising all the emotions shown on cards (this surprised me), fidgeting in her seat and difficulties playing charades (a game she had never heard of before). The SALT also came to school and observed and she had a long talk with the class teacher. The report is of a child I barely recognise. We must just be really used to her I guess.

Our problem is that a diagnosis was easy (after a long wait), but that school is still dreadful and we have been left to cope alone with no support.

[Youarentkiddingme]

Just to (hopefully) make you laugh. When dis did the emotions bit of adds they asked him what marriage was. "When you love someone and want to be with them forever" then they asked him what you do if you argue/disagree or something to that affect. "Get divorced"

I agree with asking for second opinion. Ds salt report was nothing like discussion. I know head of service professionally and made an off the record quiet complaint about it. New OT went to assess him. Now he's seeing another OT specialising in sensory stuff because he's far more complex than they thought. (From report and notes etc). So it is worthwhile saying I don't agree with X and y and what about DC response to a,b and c.

Good luck.

[Youarentkiddingme]

Sorry his OT report that should have said.

[Fourarmsv2]

DS2 had an assessment this week. He came out with scores ranging from 50-99%. But it didn't test any of the high level skills he does have problems with. It was a bit of a waste of time. He's also very good at picking up cues that she subconsciously gave to him - when it's a 50:50 chance of getting it right a high score with a highly perceptive child is surely fairly likely?

[shazzarooney99]

Gotmysons back the other day, apparently he diddnt give eye contact for 45mins of the assessment, something to do with theory of the mind,not recognisng peoples emotions,being literal and a few more things.

[RoaringFirePlease]

Sorry to hear it didn't go well. Our first SALT assessment was with a lady who kept saying how wonderful DS's speech was, even though the scores meant she then had to diagnose him with severe speech delay! She said some rather unkind things about us as parents, so I was really upset and we then refused to go back to see her ever again.

Luckily our complaint was listened to and the next time they specifically assigned us to a lady very experienced with ASD who could pick up on the very subtle signs of autism. She had to sign DS off from SALT as he was no longer in the bottom 10% for speech, but her report made a number of comments which were really useful to getting the ASD diagnosis. We had to wait quite some time to see her but it was worth it in the end.

Can you write a response to your SALT's official report and say what you feel she didn't notice or comment on (while saying that you appreciate she only saw you for a short period of time and it might have been hard for her to pick up on some of these things)? Things she didn't pick up on - include these and write specific examples of when these have happened at home so that at least your views on this are on record and in writing. Sorry I can't be of any more help x