Child development clinic for anxiety problems in 7 year old - what to expect?

[CrystalStair]

DD1 (aged 7) suffers from anxieties which prevent her ever having a full night's sleep. Other OCD -types behaviours too - needing the loo over and over again at specific times etc. The lack of sleep (she never slept well) is affecting me and DH - 7 years with almost no full nights. But most importantly affecting her at school etc. She has had various blood tests, sight test etc. She is VERY imaginative - I have two other children, also imaginative but she is in a different league... Anyway - the GP who was lovely and talked directly to her - has referred her to a 'child development clinic'. We are going this week. Will we see a psychologist? Or just an annoying HV (!) ? Some of what I want to say I would rather say without her hearing - she tends to latch on to ideas and exaggerate them but it's important they speak to her as well as to me...anyone else been to one and what do I expect?

Anyone around or shall I come back after tea time?

Not sure who you will see but at our Child Development Centre the first point of call is usually a Paediatrician who can then refer on to other services if need be.

I always find it best to write down what I want to say, as if the worst comes to the worst (as it usually does) and you are sitting in front of the specialist with your child and therefore feel incapable of actually being honest out loud, you can thrust all your written thoughts in their direction.

It also helps to contact the centre in advance and find out what the protocol is: who will you be seeing and what will they be doing; do they expect to talk to you with your child in the room; if you bring a partner or someone else, can they look after your child while you go and talk to the specialist on your own; can you be even more subtle and whilst your child is off doing some exercises/answering some questions with one person, can you be talking to the other? (eg sometimes, you end up in a joint clinic, with paediatrician and psychologist, for example, and so there is more than one person to see, meaning you can talk to the paediatrician whilst your child is seeing the psychologist for assessments, for example. This might not be what is planned the first time you go there, though, so best to be fully armed with all the information in advance).

Thanks - writing stuff down is good. Will get off here and do that now. Appreciate the advice.

DS1 was sent to an anxiety clinic where he was spoken to by 2 lovely ladies, they asked him lots of questions - how he feels, why he feels anxious, if he felt physically anxious - eg. did he get funny feelings in his tummy. I can't remember their exact job titles.
After about 10 minutes one of them took me to a different room as there were some things that I had to talk to them about in confidence, and on the way back in they said it was actually fairly clear that he probably had Aspergers so they then referred us over to a completely different department.