Are schools normally right in flagging up and pushing for ASD dx?

[AMumGoingMad]

Just that really. My sons school have said today that after consultation with the autism team regarding ds (we gave permission for this consultation) that ds will benefit from a referral to the community paed with a view to assessment for asd. The head who I have great respect for said although she is not qualified to dx ASD she would be surprised if ds is not dx'd on the spectrum. I'm not surprised by this statement although I think I had hoped all his other issues would explain away all the social and language issues but they don't. So I guess I'm beginning to come round to ASD but hearing it from a professional now makes me feel a little sad for ds. But is she likely to be right? I know you and I can't say she's definitely right or wrong but what are other people's experiences in this? If the school think it are they normally right?

[DiscoDonkey]

Well so many people told me they thought unlikely DS had asd (professionals) but that is the diagnosis we got. Even now when having meetings with teachers, EP's etc the first thing they usually say is "he really doesn't stand out as asd"

I don't think the diagnosis is wrong but it does reflect how complex asd is and zzzzz says requires a huge amount of assessment from many, many different professionals.

[AMumGoingMad]

So now a referral is done to a community paed, what happens next, what's can we expect to happen to get to point of dx or no dx?

[ouryve]

In our case, a teacher confirmed that I wasn't making things up with DS1 when we paid to enrol him in nursery early. He stuck out like a sore thumb and exhibited behaviours we'd never seen at home.

A good early years practitioner can't make a diagnosis, but will notice when children are somewhat different from others for any reason.

Your paed will most likely assess what the concerns are and then refer on to other experts eg SALT, OT, Child clinical psychologist, as appropriate and will probably also refer for a hearing test to rule out hearing issues.

[MummytoMog]

I'll let you know in a few years ;) our nursery are pushing for DD to re-enter the DX merrygoround which I'm resisting gently but firmly at the moment. They can't suggest any benefit to a DX for her (she already has speech and language therapy, a one to one regularly and is on school action plus) and I'm not convinced that an ASD DX is a good fit for her. But several professionals (EP, speech therapist and teacher) have suggested she's on the spectrum, so they could all be right I suppose. Although I've had several other professionals say she's not...

[penny100]

In our case it was a teacher who flagged up social communication issues and triggered a referral which, via multiple assessments by different specialist, led to a dx of asd. Apparently this is not uncommon as an experienced teacher can often spot issues that get overlooked at home. We had had problems with ds's behaviour for a long time and had even sought professional help but because he's always been pretty sociable asd didn't occur to me (know better now of course...!). We had spent so many years 'working around' his issues, but it took a wonderful teacher with many years experience to steer us in the right direction. So, this is not to say the teacher is your case is correct but that good and sensitive teachers can sometimes spot different issues than a parent can, in part because they get to see a child operating in such a different environment. Good luck with everything.

[GoblinGranny]

Some of us also have children on the spectrum.
So she's not qualified to dx, but with a lot of experience, and constant sight of your child in a range of social and work settings, she may be seeing enough pointers to make her consider further exploration warranted.

[YoniOneWayOfLife]

One class teacher suggested I look into DC1's 'differences' but was immediately shot down by the HT who said there was nothing wrong academically and therefore couldn't be anything 'wrong' - just a naughty child. Which is what every other teacher thought. Yet we were given a verbal diagnosis in the first appointment because it was so obvious to the psychologist. So go figure.

[Levantine]

It was a teacher who spotted it in our case, but we are onlyl half way ish through the diagnostic process. I'm pretty sure she's right though and it had never occurred to me before because he is so socialble