Dual Diagnosis - ADHD and Autism

[teleskopregel]

DC (11) has a had a diagnosis of ADHD since 6 years of age, and has been doing well on long-acting Methylphenidate. Following a recent fine-motor skills test, DC's psych would like to assess DC for autism. I was surprised. Given that DC is now 11, and past the age of early intervention, and that DC is generally doing well at school and at home, is it worth getting a diagnosis?

I should mention that DC has been having OT and speech on and off since 3 years of age, and has had regular involvement with the pysch.

If yes, what extra help does the diagnosis bring, and how does it/will it benefit DC?

I am interested to know also about those of you with DCs with dual-diagnoses.

Mine has dual diagnosis.

I think it's important they understand themselves.

Granted the ADHD is really key because of treatment and the educational impact, however, the ASD will also impact the way she sees and relates to things differently. It's important for her to understand why.

For example, my DD12 really struggles with context or inference. In English class some poetry is her idea of hell because she just doesn't understand it.

She struggles to understand why someone would be sad or happy about something.

It's important she and her teachers understand why she struggles with it and yet why she's so good at History/geography.

I agree with pp. Also she might be doing well now but it might cause issues in the future at some point. It probably won't bring any intervention (well it didn't for mine diagnosed at 11) but it helped me understand and also school.

my 11 y old has 12 separate diagnosis's and they are all complex ,he gets zero help on them all and never have .
im a single mother and im a 24/7 carer and educator
we/i get zero help from family or professionals im left to do it all myself.
ive survived on 2-3 hours sleep every few days as he dont sleep as need constant care.
he has

dyspraxia
dyslexia
damp syndrome with pragmatic disorder
asd
Neurodevelopmental difficulties
working memory disorder
inattention ADD
Developmental co-ordination disorder
dyslexia
extreme demand avoidance
PDA
severe sleeping disorder(as in doesnt sleep)

we home educate so he dont "need" school help, we love the unschooling/child led route of home education

ive always gone by what age he is mentally not his physical age(this has caused problem with the public for years as hes always been physically years older than his actually age)

hes 11 now "should" be y6 but is around the 7-8 mentally mark and y1-y2 mark educationally. even though we do complete unschooling home education not home schooling

physically hes man size, nearly 11 stone and 5ft 5 with size 9 feet.
ive always had to justify his behaviour as because hes been massive from birth people expect him to act his size.
the amount of times ive had he doesn't look disabled(while hes non verbal ,flapping, stimming and jumping) i would be in the millions.
to a disabled parent its bloody obvious

Legal protection.

@TAKESNOSHITSHIRLEY that's horrible how can people be so cruel?

DNeice has a long list of diagnoses similar to yours and also gets looks if she has a meltdown in the supermarket etc. What happened to giving someone a sympathetic look and asking if they need a hand?

Have some because you work very hard and deserve them.

OP We are about to have DS12 assessed for autism and the reason we are doing it now rather than when he was younger is that we think it will benefit him and his understanding and stop the endless 'why does no-one understand me' and 'why do I think differently to everyone else'.

Thanks to all who posted. You have made some good points, especially about helping DC understand themself better. DC does have some health issues, including being nearly legally blind, that has complicated his schooling, but in spite of them is doing well. It sometimes seems that we get a nice stretch of improvement in all areas, a gradual decrease in interventions and doctors appointments, and then we get something new. I was surprised by the grief I felt today. The diagnosis isn't as serious as DC's others, but it still felt like a punch in the stomach.