ASD assessment- what is the criteria please help!

[amimissingsomethin]

I’m struggling. 2 of my older dc have asd (diagnosed late one at 13 one at 16 through camhs so I have no idea of how it works for young children)

My youngest is 3 and has significant difficulties. We were told a community paediatrician has to accept a referral to assess him and they have now on 4 occasions rejected these referrals and won’t see him to assess ????

Apparently i can’t appeal this and we are never allowed to the meetings we’re he is discussed by the SEN team so what am I meant to do ?

Wait till he is at school ? But I really wanted some early help

Will a private diagnosis be accepted if we go down that route

Is it because of the Pandemic they are refusing the referrals? My son is nearly 11 he was diagnosed at three so it's a while ago,he had about seven months of assesments from portage,speech therapy etc,and he was given a diagnosis at a Biscip panel .I know children can be referred via school ,but for younger children I don't know the current process

When CAMHS kept losing my son's referral, I went through the GP. That seemed to carry a bit more weight.

You could try to speak to the school nursing service to find out what local approach is. But diagnosis before 4 is unusual I think? So may be no benefit to do it sooner.

It depends how impacted the child is @GoWalkabout my son was diagnosed at three it helped enormously getting a place at a special school and a statement ( as it was then )

I think my ds was flagged up and referred to Community paed at 2 year check up, that was done at GP's surgery.
It was inconclusive, so we didn't get diagnosis, but he certainly had access to portage and SLT sessions.

Who is doing your referral? The GP? Are your nursery in agreement and support the referral?

My son just turned six and has some form of suspected HFA. He was referred to the local Child Development Centre via our GO. Had our first appointment with the Developmental Paed this week and she has sent a referral for autism and adhd assessment for him. She said that can be a 2 year wait but at least he's in the system wait list now.

Try going via your Gp?

2 referrals were before covid by HV
One by SALT
One by GP

Each time we get a letter AFTER they discuss him with SEN team and refuse to assess. I can’t get a solid reason why and given family history and the severity of his issues im at a loss.
He’s not at nursery yet (starting quite soon though) I’m at the point I feel like do I just wait for them to identify a problem and refer as well as i feel now is that the only way 😞 nobody listens to me it seems or the other professionals

I would ask GP to write a strongly worded letter, requesting reasons for why referral keeps being denied.

Or go private. With the consultant who does both private AND the nhs clinic. And then ask him to re-refer you back into the nhs. It's a way of playing the system. Worked a treat for us.

Do it now. Ask GP to write again.

And from your letters from the hospital, you write again too. Politely questioning their decision to refuse. 3 times?

It's a long time between now and starting nursery. 5 months. You could achieve a lot in 5 months. If you press hard.

When you go on visiting days for the nursery tell them ! tell them you've been refused three times , tell them that you might need help and support when the referral finally comes in , prepare them, get them on side, get them already making notes - this is all the foundations and donkey work to not waste any time so they've already got things in mind, already got an eye on him, for when September starts.

You Need to wake up and learn how to play the game and how to be absolutely meticulous and everything you do, all your dates, all your evidence, and everything. start now so you don't waste any more time.