Questionnaires for autism/adhd

[purpleme12]

A few times when I've tried to describe the problems my child has, a few different people say to me she might have autism, have you thought about autism

But I look at the form (that I know I have fill out to get this) and the vast majority of the questions just aren't relevant. And just not indicative of us at all. Hardly any of it is

Does anyone else have this?

What sort of things don't seem to fit/ does your child struggle with? Have you spoken to the GP?

My child has some sensory things

She finds things hard when they don't go to plan
Eg when we were doing an activity out at the weekend and it went wrong. That is one of her triggers

She doesn't like unexpected things. Eg if you weren't going to the seaside and then the day before sprung that on her

She finds it very hard to regulate her emotions. That is the thing we have the main problem with

None of those are enough by themselves for an autism trigger acceptance

How old is she? Do these points sound familiar? Female autism checklist | Oxford CBT

Those questionnaires are usually vague enough that they apply to everyone.
Best to describe your daughter to a professional psychiatrist and get professional insight.
That aside girls often present differently to boys and may not fit the questions.

Just emotional and sensory sensitivities

And she can sometimes get stressed if we do something she wasn't expecting it something we don't normally do on that day etc

I'd go and have a chat with the GP to see what they think. My eldest DD is autistic and was the same way when she was younger. The other option would be to get a private assessment done. But PP is right regarding the checklist/quiz.

I don't find the questionnaire vague to be honest

CAMHS have suggested a course for me to go on. I think it's to help parents with ways to help children when they're anxious. I'm quite happy to go on this course. Anything that might help us.

Not sure if this will be helpful or informative but I had the same with the initial questionnaire when helping an ex partner with her autism diagnosis.

Obviously I can't remember each question word-for-word but for example one of them asked if she could envision characters/scenes when reading a story. DP's autism also formed a lack of ability to do activities alone, she had never read a book in her life. Nobody had ever read to her as a child either-so out of ten, one question irrelivent. I put a cover letter, illustrating this. I also read part of an (older) children's book to her and asked the question, but she didn't really know what I meant.

Another one related to if she found it difficult to sense if someone was becoming bored of her talking to them-she didn't talk to people unless directly addressed and then it would usually be very short answers-not possible to answer that one either. Another one was could she 'read between the lines' -she didn't know what this phrase meant, took it literally as in could she see anything between the lines on a piece of paper.

Conclusion (IMO) is, we're fumbling our way through this. As well as everything else.

It also made me wonder if there were other missed diagnoses, LDs present-which I also put in the cover note.

Thanks it's interesting

I do feel like there's something going on with my child. But it's like even with these things it's like they're saying does she fit in these boxes?
Which makes it harder for me to see...

When was yours diagnosed?

It sounds more like anxiety and/ or a highly sensitive child. How old is she and has she always been like this?

It has become noticeable over the last few years
She's 11

I'd recommend reading the highly sensitive child book

I would love to get to the stage where she can deal with her emotions better and we don't get all the anger and rudeness

As adults we don't always handle our emotions, yet how can we expect children to. Their brains are still developing into their twenties. They need us to guide them in recognising emotions, naming emotions and managing emotions. Validation, role modeling, setting boundaries is key. Let her know it's okay to be angry, it's not okay to be rude, when I am angry this is what I do..

So what would you think is normal/expected?

Every child is different. I guess if it's impacting their daily functioning (at home, school or socially) and causing them distress then I would seek help. I think the course CAMHS have recommended is a good start.

Well that's what I mean it does affect their daily life. Otherwise I wouldn't think anything of it.

I don't mean any offence but your previous post just makes it all sound so simple and straightforward which is the opposite of what it is.

It's not straightforward at all, compounded by the fact that some of the questions will be searching alternatives (is there any other explanation for the behaviours) and some of them will be repeat questions phrased somewhat differently in order to see if it elicits the same response. Which isn't there to trick you or catch you out, or not exactly, it's to maintain the integrity of the data.

It's possible that your daughter is anxious, or has sensory processing disorder (which can be a standalone diagnosis), rather than autistic.

Which is the form you are talking about? Because there are various different screening forms, and realistically none of them are perfect, most were originally designed with boys in mind, and they won't give a definitive answer until you've had an ADOS or DISCO assessment administered by a properly qualified professional.

For what it is worth, not all of the questions in the screening applied to my child either and she was diagnosed with level 2 autism (I know not everyone likes levels but including it to indicate that she was not considered a 'borderline' diagnosis.)

Apparently a lot of the online tests for autism are not well correlated with people who are actually diagnosed. Whereas the ADHD screeners have a very high rate of accuracy, although it's worth being aware that you don't necessarily have to meet criteria for both the hyperactive/impulsive AND the inattentive side - one or the other is enough for a diagnosis.

I would just fill in whatever CAMHS have given you, don't question it too deeply, and going on the course can't hurt. Then if that still doesn't help do you have the option to go back and ask what now?

TBH I was convinced my 6yo was autistic but we went through all the official testing and they said he doesn't show any signs. I was so surprised by this until I looked at the detailed test results and saw it for myself. He does however have raging ADHD and I can't believe how much I didn't see of this before we went through all the testing. I knew he had some ADHD signs but I didn't see him as the picture in the textbook (and he pretty much is). He doesn't tick any boxes really on the inattentive side because most of them are things he isn't responsible for on his own yet. But with the full assessment, he came out with a diagnosis of combined type, and from the more detailed info I can see that his attention span is really

I think the problem is that a lot of the time what is given as a sign of autism is more of a sign of a child who is struggling. (E.g. difficulty with big emotions/behaviours, anxiety which they try to avoid by trying to control other people or eliminate uncertainty hence needing to know what will happen, difficulty with sensory sensitivity etc). So any child who is struggling in some way might show those signs. They could be struggling because they are autistic, or because of ADHD, trauma, an anxiety disorder, or something else entirely.

When she was 7 x

I recently did a referral form for the local NHS child autism assessments (not CAMHS, it's contracted out). Many of the questions were appropriate for a much younger or non-verbal child, not my 10 year old. An Educational Psychologist has already told us he shows autistic traits and I'm diagnosed so it wouldn't be a surprise, but I doubt he will even get to speak to someone. The bar is set so high to get an assessment as the waiting lists are so long.

Personally I think if you're at the point of speaking to CAMHS I would not bother with the highly sensitive child stuff. Some people find it useful at a certain point in the journey. This is not that point.

Ok thanks

I self referred to CAMHS because I thought maybe she could get support with the emotional explosions/emotional regulation. But all they seemed to say is that oh have you thought about autism. I know that the first step is to fill in the initial form and the only thing on the form for her would be she finds unexpected things hard sometimes. And she has some sensory issues/things.

And that they offered me this course. Which is fine I don't mind going on that, if I can get it off work.

Not sure how successful me speaking to them was

I shouted back at her last week when she was going off on one/misbehaving.
I pretty much always manage to keep my cool.

Next door probably heard and now think I'm awful probably.
They didn't let their child come round at the weekend so they probably hate me or something. which makes me feel even more lonely.
Obviously she's not really like this with other people cos I'm her safe space. I have to believe that's the reason cos otherwise I'll go mad.
So why wouldn't they think it was me