AIBU to worry about the surge in school-suggested ASD diagnoses?

[cremebrulait]

Fellow mums, I'm worried about a trend I've noticed in our schools. It seems some are pushing parents to seek ASD diagnoses to secure funding for support. While I absolutely believe children with autism deserve all the help they can get, I'm concerned about the following:

1. The high rate of suggested ASD diagnoses in some classes (much higher than average)
2. Schools advising parents to get diagnoses to continue enrollment
3. Long NHS waiting times leading to private evaluations

I worry this might lead to:

• Misallocation of resources
• Inappropriate interventions for children
• Overlooking other potential issues
• Psychological impact on misdiagnosed children

Shouldn't there be equality in support for children with other learning or developmental issues too? Like ADHD, emotional and behavioural disorders, sensory impairments, physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, developmental delays, health conditions, sensory processing disorder, specific learning differences, or twice-exceptional children?

AIBU to think this system is flawed? Has anyone else experienced this? Am I overreacting, or is this a genuine concern? What are your thoughts on how we can ensure all children get the right support without resorting to potentially inaccurate diagnoses?

(I'll post more thoughts on misdiagnosis in comments.)

It is impossible to extrapolate as wide an issue as is suggested by individual experience. Schools benefit in no way by pushing for diagnoses. To suggest they might casts unreasonable aspersions onto the professional teachers and the highly qualified medical professionals that carry out assessments.

Where I live, the waiting list for formal assessments is about two years, so it hard to see how schools think that’s an easy win.

What a weird thread. It's phenomenally hard to get a diagnosis, so it's hard to understand what the angst is about.

Are you generally given to bouts of anxiety about health care professionals and their decision making, OP?

It’s common in my experience for people to take an opinion based on individual experience and present it as a broad fact.

So are YOU saying all LAs are identical?

Yes, parents often get annoyed instead of asking themselves whether it's more likely that we enjoy annoying parents or whether we are genuinely seeking answers to concerning or unusual behaviours in order to help the child.

Often parents get annoyed but come back months later to say that they now realise that school might have had a point.

Sometimes, we hear from our secondary schools that parents won't accept a difference until the child is at crisis point.

I suppose it is defensive, not wanting to accept that their child might not be nt, seeing any concern raised as a criticism.

Even if an over-zealous teacher is wrong, they are not having those conversations to annoy anyone.

Not Barcelona. But my DC did start primary abroad. I have seen by posts that maybe our LA is or school are doing things differently? It’s crazy how angry people are instead of just saying that their experience is different. I went to GP. GP made a referral to paediatrics to eval for learning issues. ASD ruled out. Other outing issue I will not post. Paediatrics phoned 8 months later. In person appointment scheduled 9 months later. In the meantime I have been asked multiple times to get ASD assessments. I spoke to other parents and learned I was not the only one and others have paid for private. I then heard other parents talking about the same. I asked around and it seemed common. I had a similar experience abroad. I did research and it seems common in some places to use ASD diagnosis to get more support. It bothers me. But apparently more people are outraged that I would be upset about any of it .

The opposite. There is nothing that is Not based on my experience meaning it all is…

Thank you!!!!

Thank you!!!

i hope nobody attacks you as they’ve been having a go at me!! 😒

You're talking utter rubbish, though.

NOWHERE Nationally can you just get a flippant diagnosis.

And schools DO NOT get additional funding for the vast majority of ASD kids.

Stop digging and jump out of the hole!

This is ONE example, from nearly a decade ago.

Lets not act like it proves your theories on what's happening now!

Keeping it simple

An ASD diagnosis does not bring with it extra funding. It does not bring with it automatic support.

In my experience, the schools haven’t pushed ASD diagnosis at all. It’s the parents who spotted something was wrong, often because of prolonged meltdowns at home, school refusal and other signs seen when the child was at home not masking any more.
also in my experience, when the kids are diagnosed there is little to zero support for them. They don’t get their needs met particularly and continue to struggle.
so where I am (north London) I’m not seeing similar issues to the ones you’re seeing at all.

Less than 5% of pupils in school have EHCP. That includes those in specialist provisions.

13% of pupils have additional needs significant enough to need extra support but not to get an EHCP (therefore highly likely no funding)

many other pupils will have additional needs that don’t need (or need but don’t receive) and additional support.

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england

There you go. Rest assured OP. Your fears seem to be unfounded.

So my Ds 2 years to get adhd diagnosis probably another 4 for Asd diagnosis - was on Sen register .. no funding , no support in or out of school.
wasn’t enough of a problem in school , very intelligent - masked .

The diagnosis helped him and others understand, some managed that better than others .

I absolutely do not recognise this fantasy world where kids are automatically assumed autistic or where the diagnosis comes with a lovely support package .

i can tell you doing the ADHD assessment meant lots of jumping through hoops to prove you aren’t a shit parent, this is especially common in girls who more commonly mask .

somedays I dispair this crap continues to be posted

Could you post a link to the study, please?

It is very unusual for schools to provide full time 1:1 without it being detailed, specified and quantified in F of an EHCP. Therefore, most pupils receiving full time 1:1 will have 1:1 detailed, specified and quantified in F of an EHCP. This means it has been deemed to be legally reasonably required. For many, it will have been deemed to be reasonably required by SENDIST. An EHCP is a legal document. It is not for you to decide these pupils don’t need full time 1:1.

@cremebrulait you can honestly relax. None of the things you fear are happening, and definitely not to the extent you think you are.

Here are a couple of links.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210506104753.htm

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00787-024-02459-x

Are you somehow unaware that all avenues and differential diagnoses are considered during the course of an ASC assessment? They don't hand out dx willy-nilly.

@cremebrulait

Are your children at private or state school?

Your comment about some private schools setting three ways based on age was odd.

I'm not angry. Very relaxed. I work in education and my son has been through the whole process. I just don't agree with you. My experience and that of those in my particularly stretched and underfunded local authority is wildly different to what you've experienced. But yes it must be that your local authority are doing things very differently.

So why can't you accept that other people are neurodivergent? As I say, it usually doesn't attract extra funding, the only benefit is for the family themselves - a diagnosis can be life changing.

You do realise that the criteria for ASD diagnoses changed some time ago? - many women of my generation have had our suffering ignored, minimised, discredited. Hopefully that will happen less, though I'm not convinced. My experience is the opposite of yours; I've yet to encounter a teacher capable of identifying potential neurodiversity even when the signs are blatantly obvious to me - they seem to prefer to attribute difficulties to the child's behaviour/ the parents/ lifestyle etc (though never the school of course 😅)

You don't push for a diagnosis, only an assessment.

It is up to the clinician to assess and weigh up the evidence to support a diagnosis. They have to meet the criteria as set out in the DSM5.

Sincerely

A newly diagnosed AuDHD 40something

So is it completely different from how it was in 2012? We knew at least 4 kids referred to local child development clinic. In our case the school suggested an assessment as DC allegedly had a few issues. GP was reluctant, but thought it best to support school recommendation. Child Development Clinic (state not private) sent us behavioural descriptors to fill in. The school only showed us what they had answered to each question etc. after they had sent it. Private school, so zero commitment to accountability. We had a full set of clinic appointments over an intensive morning. Then there was a meeting with the Consultant Paediatrician. She asked me what I thought of how the school filled in the descriptors. I said, I felt they didn’t seem to be about my child. She said she did not think so either and said we should get his IQ tested as soon as possible as he was a very intelligent boy. The school still didn’t agree with her. She reluctantly agreed to visit the school. They then - sort of - shut up but he was still not being cared for well by the school. We left to village school and never had a problem again