S&L assessment

[Purplemary]

We are in the early stages of getting help for dd aged 6 after struggling for years and receiving no support from the school so far . I find it hard to put into words but her behaviour and response to situations is always much more extreme than any other child , and meltdowns can escalate depending how we respond ( I've read about pda and she sometimes ticks a lot of those boxes however not all the time ) .

Dd has always been challenging even as a baby , cries a lot , was late to speak however did start talking just as we were about to ask for referal aged 3 and now has lots of 'meltdowns' usually before or after school which can be set of by anything she doesn't want to do although this also happens at the weekend . She coped at nursery however school as been more of a challenge .

She has a number of small medical issues that have resulted in hospital stays , not sure if that contributes or is relevant .

She has always been a bad sleeper which doesn't help , sleeps through now but always wakes at 6am no matter how late she goes to bed . Has a good diet , lots of exercise so I don't think these are factors . I have tried cutting out screen time which has made no difference . She is generally overly sensitive and very demanding . We have 3 other children and dd takes up the majority of our time it feels .

I have often thought she is on the spectrum from a young age , although didn't score high enough on the M-chat test for me to raise it before . She has touches of sensory processing disorder and we now have a letter from speech .

Following a gp visit to explain our worries they explained first stage is to go through s&l team before progressing to Ed psyc if necessary . the speech and language team prior to appointment have sent a letter asking about her speech and language , what issues affect her etc however I am at a loss how to answer these questions as most of her problems aren't around speech apart from when she is upset she can't control herself and makes lots of silly noises / screeches as she can't calm down if that makes sense.

I have read all the usual recommended books , sensitive child , explosive child , 123 magic , and find positive parenting with ignoring minor issues the most affective with her along with family support to ensure lots of regular 121 time ( with all the kids ) . DH is very hands on and supportive but does work long hours .

Has anyone been through similar that could share any thoughts or advice ? They were great over the phone I just need help putting it on paper .