To want to smack this woman in the mouth?

[QueenOfTheEighthKingdom]

Fantasising about it is about all I can do but she sure will get a mouthful if I ever see her again!

DS (17) was diagnosed with Autism today. Almost 6 years after my community paediatrician insisted he didn't have it.

6 years of hell he's gone through not being able to access the support and therapeutic educational opportunities he could have had, battling through mainstream education and sanctions for behaviour he can't control creating a depressed, massively anxious, totally disengaged teenager who has been misunderstood and blamed for years!

AAARRGGGHHHHH!

Again, really sorry for your difficulties Queen. I think most people get your frustration, and understand what a diagnosis would have meant to you and your family all those years ago. And how frustrating this must be - to be proved right over something you'd loved to have been proved wrong about.

I would write her a letter, outlining all the markers she missed, and the effects it had in your son and family.

Perhaps she won’t make the same error again.

There is a certain measure of subjectivity in many diagnoses - even those such as pneumonia. I would imagine autism diagnoses have a greater degree of subjectivity because it is based on behaviour and meeting ‘criteria’ rather than blood test, X Ray. The fault lies not with the paediatrician but with a system that doesn’t build in a 2nd opinion and only gives extra help to those with the diagnosis of autism.

I would imagine autism diagnoses have a greater degree of
subjectivity

There are standardised tests under either ICD10 or DSM5 for parents as well as children, some of which which can take hours to complete then score, the scores have cutoffs and under the cutoff a diagnosis is not given. It's not based solely on observation.
A diagnosis is often undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team e.g. Paed, Ed Psych, SLT and OT, depending on individual areas and individual presentations, children can be observed at the team's premises, at home and at school over a long time-period and when enough evidence has been gathered, test results compiled, observations undertaken, GP and school have been consulted for their input, a team decision will be made.

Not all children go through all of those processes to obtain a diagnosis, , if the team at any point decide that there is enough evidence that a child is autistic, a diagnosis will be given at that point.

Doesn’t that bias the diagnosis towards autism? For borderline patients I can imagine different teams will come to different conclusions.

Not that that is a bad thing... I guess in the current system it might be better labelling something in order to get support. The important thing is that kids get the appropriate support.