I'm not a regular poster but many of you have been kind enough to impart your knowledge with me in the past and I thought I'd update you with the diagnosis we got for my son today.
(Brief background - I became concerned around 16 months when I realised he wasn't pointing or doing much else in terms of non verbal communication. I carried out the M-CHAT test at home which he failed, had him 'Sunderlanded' at 17 months, the results of which were a little ambiguous and have had him on a milk free and low gluten diet over the last few months. He's now 22 months).
We had him assessed here in sweden where we live (my son's father is swedish) at the children's nueropsychiatric unit which is headed up by Christopher Gillberg. Although we were unable to see Gillberg as he travels so much we saw people who have worked alongside him for years, and those trained by him so felt we were in safe hands for a dianosis.
He was assessed when he was around 19/20 months and they have concluded that (at that age) he has very mild autism and will refer him on for therapy.
Feeling pretty bad, although I know I shouldn't because the diagnosis is 'mild'. I suppose I was hoping that they would come back and tell me that there was nothing wrong with him and that I was being ridiculous (as most of my RL friends have done), so I suppose it's still a bit of a shock and it's all quite raw. Also feeling a bit lost in terms of where we go now. It feels like all the impetus I had in getting to this stage disappeared during the course of our meeting today. The unit which has evaluated him are not the same people who will give him therapy so that's an unknown territory and I'm not sure how comprehensive that therapy will be (it differs from region to region). I have a sinking feeling....we live out in the sticks and I'm not hopeful that the 'habilitering' centre (don't know what the UK equivalent of that is) we'll be assigned to will have the resources or people with the knowledge to give us much help.
I feel like I need a plan of action, the sooner the better. It's going to be about a month before our habilitering centre even get involved and I am frustrated as I want to act now as from what I understand early intervention (and the quality of it) is essential for a better prognosis.
I'm really sorry for the moan. I just can't talk to anyone in real life at the moment.
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My son's diagnosis (ASD) - feeling glum and helpless
29 replies
catski · 23/02/2009 22:14
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