Have you heard of an autism assessment being done this way?

Are you sure the diagnosis is autism and not say speech and language disorder or some diagnosis in line with autism?

My daughter was diagnosed with PDA by a paediatrician but then I discovered that no one in Education would accept it so she was assessed at CAMHS, where she was diagnosed with asd with PDA.

Later she was diagnosed with a speech and language disorder by a speech and language therapist and she went to a specialist speech and language school for secondary.

Speech and language is often used as a way of saying autism without having the actual diagnosis of autism.

Anyway, I guess processes vary across the country but do check exactly what the report says.

No, that doesn't sound usual. Both mine had the ADOS, and both diagnoses were given by a paediatrician. My DD's assessment had input from school, a SLT and a Clinical Psychologist, my DS only saw the community paediatrician although she took input from preschool.

My son saw an OT and a SALT. Us parents had a 3 meeting with a psychologist I think she was. Might be worth looking at the NICE guidelines

@Purpleturtle46 this doesn't sound right at all, and depending on area, the wait is 2+ years after the initial assessment.

In our area you have to fill out zillions of forms, then providing your child ticks enough boxes, you then eventually get an initial assessment, and if this is successful, you get put on the official waiting list which is 4 YEARS in my area.

My DS2 was flagged up aged 6 (Y2 at school) as being likely autistic by his teacher (although there were signs there from aged 2). It took a year of form filling in and initial rejections where they then said he was just anxious and offered us an anxiety management program which we gladly accepted to get some help.

When the CAHMS person met DS2 (who was in Y3 at this point), she could clearly see he was autistic, so they put him on the diagnosis waiting list and backdated it to when the official forms were initially filled in (Y2). He is now in Y4 and we are hoping he will get assessed by Y6 before he goes to secondary school.

Some areas have a different system and shorter waiting lists.

EPs can, and do, diagnose autism. It may not be an area they choose to specialise in and if, they're employed by a LA, it may well not be part of their role. It's not a medical diagnosis, but is diagnosed by observation, discussion and behaviour over time. All core activities for an EP

It’s totally different from my experience as a parent, which involved in person appointments with several different healthcare professionals and my son, a questionnaire, a phone interview with just me and input from my son’s teachers. It took several years to complete.

Diagnostic pathways vary from area to area and, given wait times, many places are running virtual models. You mention professionals from at least 2 disciplines who may have shared observations and assessments to meet NICE guidelines. The EP may or may not be involved in your area's pathway.
Can you ask when you'll receive a report outlining the nature of the assessment and conclusions?
I'm sorry it's come as a bit of a shock for you OP. Not quite informed consent.

Well she was right in terms of the fact an EP can't make a diagnosis. They aren't medically trained.
But equally, nor can a SaLT.
Don't get me wrong, SaLTs input is crucial, they absolutely can see Autism in children they are working with, but they must then pass that information on to the Paediatrician for the Paed to make the diagnosis.

Not for autism - i has initial parent history appointment (1hr covering everything from pregnancy onwards), questionnaires to school and parents, hour meeting with child then a separate hour with child including ADOS assessment.

Is it definitely an autism diagnosis not something else?

I'm a SLT and this doesn't sound right at all. She isn't qualified to make the diagnosis even after discussion with a "ND lead" sometimes a SLT might be the one leading the conversation if they were the professional who knew you best after a MDT decision but that doesn't sound at all like the situation here.

I've worked a long time and I've heard of mistakes happening, like a child being diagnosed and the therapist telling parents before pediatrician was able to or a child with a cardiac condition that is also has abbreviation having autism written on reports as therapists misunderstood the notes. I wonder if this is some kind of error and I would query it

I'm a SALT. If you feel comfortable, feedback how this news was delivered to you to save anyone else having to go through similar. Not being given a window of time to process this and ask questions is terrible. I hope you're ok.

If she has an ed psych and is under SALT referred by a GP, I would already assume she is "in the pipeline" and on the road to a diagnosis. Most kids take a year to get that. If you think she has it, a diagnosis will open a lot of doors with the EHCP process. I would be grateful and let it slide.

Curiouser and curiouser…

Doesn’t sound like an obvious ASD diagnosis and doesn’t sound like the right people have yet been involved.

Hi OP,

I work in an assessment team.

So there is a couple of things here. Only a practitioner psychologist /paediatrician/psychiatrist can give an autism diagnosis (hence the discussion with the clinical lead). In terms of psychologists, it’s usually a clinical psychologist, although sometimes Ed psychs are asked to contribute to an assessment by giving information if they are school based, that is probably why they said it isn’t their remit, they probably weren’t trained in assessment or working in a diagnostic team.

A gold standard assessment is multidisciplinary, involves something called an ADOS assessment being completed and observation in school plus parent interview of the child’s development. In my team to manage the 3 year waiting list we have developed a system to support families where there is a huge wait. However, the process sounds quite different. We would only do this where the diagnosis is clear as day, no question at all and family are well aware without having had an assessment. We would still need to have all the above information but that could be gathered by the clinician working with the family, and then as a clinic we would want ‘eyes on’ the child at least once. I don’t know if there’s something around the way this has been delivered to you but I’m not sure what’s going on here. If it’s simply a case that a SLT who does not work in an ASD assessment team has asked someone with a small amount of information then no, that is not good enough. I don’t even know how they would write the report because they wouldn’t have the essential information. If that is what has happened I wonder whether what they were trying to communicate is that their conversation with the lead suggested that your child was likely to have ASD, and would warrant the child to be placed on the waiting list for further assessment.

No, my daughter has recently been diagnosed. The process included a general review with the paediatrician who asked to refer her for an ados assessment. This assessment was done by the same paediatrician and a Salt. The full assessment also included a questionnaire to the school. Even after the assessment it still was a month's or so before we had an appointment to give and discuss diagnosis and a full report was sent in the post a week or so later.

We had the following last year, a multidisciplinary panel to NICE guidelines via private clinic.

Initial pre screen questionnaires and meeting
Developmental questionnaire completed by parents
ADOS assessment (with child)
3DI interview (with parent, completed by psychologist)
School feedback form
Report and feedback

I don’t think yours sounds right tbh! We came away with no diagnosis, didn’t meet all the criteria for the DSM 5, it was very thorough. And expensive. 😬

I suspect that she doesn't have a diagnosis at all. She might be on the first step of the pathway to a diagnosis but no one who is qualified to give a diagnosis has actually met with her.

It doesn't seem to me that this was an appropriate process.

There should be a multi-disciplinary process and a battalion of assessment interviews, including with yourself. What status does the 'ND lead' have? Is s/he another speech and language specialist? Surely there needs to be a wider input than simply from a sppech and language team?

Any CAMHS involvement?

What has the S&L therapy been focused on?

Nope

SALT gateway the ASD assessments here. Our first appointment was with them, and they referred to CAMHS. We had a mixture of questionnaires, and appointments with the consultant .. then it was all taken to panel, and they did the diagnosis.

This sounds very poorly handled. If this is the process happening locally I would say it is inadequate. I agree about emailing the SaLT and asking for a session to go through the assessment and report to understand the outcome. I'd say don't be afraid to complain if you think at the end of it that it doesn't add up.

I would encourage you to think about what your concerns are. You might want to:

• Question how they made the diagnosis so you can feel confident it is accurate
• Provide constructive feedback or a complaint about how the process was communicated to you
• Request a time to speak without your daughter present and with your DH there

These would all be reasonable. If you know what you want to achieve then go back to the team and discuss further.