Suspected Autism boy age 4. Your experience please

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Hi,
I have a very bright boy. Nursery described him as a genius. He's very social, funny, etc the only thing that is an issue is his sensory food aversion. He's methodical with Lego, give him a Transformer and until he 'gets it' it's like WW3 has hit our home. He's a perfectionist.
He's seen a peadiatricion, who's suggested waiting three months to monitor his behaviour. He's agreed to get him tested without informing the GP ( at my request) as I don't want anything on my child's medical record..... Yet!
Does anyone have the same experience with their DS?

I find it odd that a paed would agree to that. Was it a private appointment?

Yes.

My ds is 3.5 and has been diagnosed with autism.

For what it's worth I wouldn't go down the private route. For educational purposes etc etc private reports don't count for much. I don't know why you're bothered about it being on his medical records but I would go to the gp and get an nhs referral to a community paediatrician and get assessed that way (alongside the private route if you are keen to do something quickly).

I'd look at the national autistic website for help and information about autism in general and diagnosis.

Also just wanted to point out that the media perception of autism being some sort of genius incuding type disorder like rain man is just one aspect of autism. Some children do have special skills and abilities but equally lots of others do not and it is more about how it affects their communication, interaction with the world and their ability to cope with sensory information. The site I mentioned above explains this really well. My son is obsessional about road signs for example and knows every single road sign there is and speaks very well but he cannot cope with noise at all and has a meltdown before we even get near a public toilet because of handryers (so we just don't go near them and as a result he isn't toilet trained and won't be for some time yet).

Although his speech is good he repeats a lot and often says things without context. Every outing is punctuated by him pointing out every sign and asking what it is. At a visit to the zoo for example he ignores all the animals and runs round looking at all the signs and asking what they all are.

He has no safety awareness and we keep him on reins when we go out.

I could go on and on but I guess I'm just saying all children with autism are very different :)

Thank you for sharing your experience.
What does the assessment involve?

Lots if assessments basically. We had two paediatrician appointments where they observed and asked a lot of questions and then a speech and language observation and then they sent someone out to ds nursery (he attends a special needs one) to observe and write a report. They then sent all the reports to the asd panel, they reach a decision and the diagnosis is given to you by the paediatrician at another appointment. It is slightly area dependent but that's how it works here. The whole process can take a while because of all the different people involved and reports etc ours took about 6-8 months from referral to diagnosis and that's quite quick.

Thank you. Has there been a significant positive change in all your lives since diagnosis? If so, how?

In some ways ...for us it's helped with things like education as we feel ds won't cope in mainstream so we have applied for an ehcp for him (the new "statement", statements aren't being issued anymore) and it's made it easier to claim things like dla and carers allowance (although you actually don't need a diagnosis to claim these, it just sometimes makes things easier if you do). So those things have made family life easier for us and less pressurised. And I think being able to look at various strategies with a view to it being autism to manage meltdowns etc has helped but in all honesty I'm not sure the diagnosis has made a huge difference in that regard. I have to be honest and say that I haven't found the speech therapist or paediatrician helpful to be honest but I know a lot of people do.

For us I think having a name for some of the behaviours ds has has helped us to understand more and to explain more to others.

Thank you for your honesty and time this morning. I wish you all the best best in this new chapter x

OP, you could try posting on the Special Needs - SN children board. Lots of people there with experience of autism.

The NAS website will help describe autism traits and there are lots of other sources online. It is identified by a ticking three boxes: difficulties in social interaction, social communication and social imagination/flexibility of thought. It is often accompanied by other calming activities such as narrow interests or repetitive patterns of activities. Some people (including often the parents of kids with ASD) have just some of these traits. I have two sons (7 and 4) with autism and a neuro-typical daughter (2), if you are interested you can see what we've experienced on my blog. Good luck to you.

rainbowsaretoobeautiful.blogspot.co.uk/