going privat?

[Crawling]

Can people tell me what the advantages and disadvantages of paying for private diagnosis are?

[mrslaughan]

What are you concerned about?
DS was a riddle. Terrible behaviour at school, it was like he was a different child. Everyone thought he had aspergers because they only saw the behaviour at school, but we saw behaviour in multiple settings and new that socially he could be very different. We paid for a multidisciplinary assessment, and it was a revelation (though one of the team , the psychiatrist disagreed with the rest of the team) . We now know exactly what his challenges are and why, his therapy is very targeted and is making an unbelievable difference to him. But and this is a big but, it cost us thousands - much more than we originally thought it would.
I feel it was really worth it, as there is no argument with the school - they can't argue, but I wonder how many people can really afford it.

[Crawling]

Dd is being assessed for autism but no school will accept her and there is only one ms school which has a specialist autism unit near by which two doctors have said she will likely need. But diagnosis is taking so long though quickly compared to other people trying for a diagnosis and i am concerned the unit will be full by the time everything is sorted and she wont get a place.

[mrslaughan]

FYI - DS has fine motor dyspraxia, core Gross motor skills above average, but real problems with motor planning and sequencing , and sensory processing disorder (he is sensory seeking). Apparently, very unusually, the dyspraxia has a big impact on his speech (though was not diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia) and this effects his social interactions ESP in the group environment. He had had years of speech therapy and we had never got to the bottom of his speech issues. The motor planning an sequencing was just causing huge frustrations for him.
I don't believe we would ever had got to the bottom of this, and been able to effectively help him if we hadn't done this.

[bjkmummy]

I went through the normal route for dx - it took many years. We have now got private reports and they highlight so many more areas of difficulty than the original reports - the reports can be expensive but also worth their weight in gold. My salt report cost £170 and was worth every penny. OT was £700 and ed psych will be about £600

[Handywoman]

Might well depend on the nature of the concerns. Our developmental Paed has picked up on my dd's subtle difficulties. In contrast, not only was NHS SLT assessment a waste of time, so was the intervention. And I heard this from many others. Also depends on age and stage: we got private SLT on board in order to make maximum amount of progress in the year before reception. Turned out to be completely the right thing to do.

HW x

[Crawling]

Ok Dd is just turned 3would a private ed pysch be able to get her into a special school unit in mainstream school if she /he feels it is necessary?

[Handywoman]

Before shelling out for Ed Psych report I think I would find out how far or what could be achieved with the findings? Because (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) I have a feeling not all Ed Psych reports will be accepted by LEAs, particularly if they are advocating intervention that costs £££££.

But I might be wrong. Others on here will know more.

HW x

[Crawling]

Thank you handy woman i think i may wait as dd was referred for assessment in August and her appointment with peadiatrician is next week and i have spoke with ed pysch whos appointment is in two weeks. See what they say and how things progress.