How useful have you found psychologists? Mixed feelings about our meeting today.

[mummypig]

Dp and I went to see a psychologist today, part of a local family support service, referred by school who are having problems with ds2's behaviour. He is most definitely hyperactive, inattentive, impulsive and aggressive. I'm not surprised the teachers find him difficult, especially when they are expecting him to do the same as the other 29 kids in the class exactly when they tell him to do. And I do find him difficult at home, and sometimes I'm really worn out by the end of the day. But dp and I have evolved our own approach to looking after him and to a certain extent it works. Also I tend to blame most of the hyperactivity, inattentiveness and aggressiveness on his anti-epileptic drugs but maybe there's something more intrinsic to him that's causing it as well.

Anyway the psych surprised me by asking quite a few leading questions that showed she was thinking he might have AS or an ASD - questions about routine and would we describe him as being more analytical than creative etc. And she's talked about doing some assessment with him to look at how he processes information. So it's got me a bit worried because I thought seeing a psychologist could be helpful but now I am not sure if it will be or not.

I don't think he's on the autistic spectrum. At times I've wondered, mainly because of his apparent disregard for other's feelings. But I think that's more down to being impulsive than really not knowing how others feel. I've read about what it's like to have autism and the idea of 'mindblindness', but if I ask him questions about other people's feelings and motivations, he seems quite insightful. I've looked at the questionnaires for both syndromes and he displays far more ADHD symptoms than the AS/ASD ones.

After that ramble, what I'd like to know is has anyone found psychologists useful, especially for hyperactive kids? I'm a bit concerned that she's going down this alley and I hope she's flexible enough to change her approach if ds2 doesn't fit her expectations when she does meet and assess him. What are your experiences?

Thanks everyone

[dustystar]

There's lots of crossovers between ASDs and ADHD - so many in fact that some paediatricians think that ADHD should be counted as part of the autistic spectrum. Its important that she do a thorough assessment as its not uncommon for children with ASD to display ADHD type behaviour and children have been misdiagnosed in the past because of this. My ds has both AS and ADHD and TBH his ADHD type behaviour is the most obvious but its his AS that makes it more difficult to find ways of managing his behaviour

[mummypig]

Thanks dustystar. I guess I should be impressed that she's doing her job properly by checking for ASD before jumping in with strategies that might not work. Dp and I are now wondering what her assessment might throw up...

[mummypig]

actually have just read trace2's messages when she went to see the ed psych and all her comments could have been written about our ds2. So I'm coming round to the idea of him possibly having AS.