Potential autism assessment… how to go about it?

[toxicwebb]

Good evening everyone, don’t know how to start I guess so I’ll just jump straight in!

Got called in by the nursery a few days ago, my 3 year old DD started around 2 weeks ago. Everything fine or so I thought, for reference my DD has been late in almost everything development wise. She’s still wearing nappies and seems scared of the toilet, she didn’t start walking until she was almost 2 and she still isn’t fully speaking. She will say words, and can let you know if she wants something but cannot string a sentence together quite literally. She does speak 2 languages though so I don’t know if this might be affecting her, I speak to her in English and her dad speaks to her in English but also Kurdish as we want her to learn half of her culture. Anyway, the nursery have said they are concerned as she apparently does not engage with other kids and staff, she will eat very little and only shows interest in playing alone with the toys, to put it bluntly they are concerned she may have autism. I have had thoughts here and there that she may have autism but to hear this come from someone else especially in a professional setting shocked me a little. Her dad would like us to contact the GP surgery tomorrow as the HV is coming in three weeks time to observe her in nursery… my question is how do I even go about this? How do I start? What do I say? Is it something the GP can even help with?

I’m so sorry for rambling on and I hope you got this far!

From a stressed and worried first time mum x

Hi,

Please do not worry. I know that it can seem very daunting and scary to start with.

What is likely to happen is that the health visitor will refer her to the paediatrician for an autism assessment. She will likely wait for the assessment for 1-2 years. In the meantime the nursery can refer her to isend or something similar in your area which is essentially the sen early years department for education. They can observe her in nursery and develop plans for the nursery and give recommendations for things that may help eg. Sensory toys, now and next visuals etc. Before she starts school they can help to develop transition plans for her and would recommend around applying for ehcp.

The health visitor should also give you some support around groups or resources that may be useful while you wait for a diagnosis. She may or may not have autism but hopefully the health visitor will be able to give you an idea of how delayed she is. Realistically getting as much support as early as possible is a good thing. It will mean that things are more likely to be in place for when she starts school.

My son was diagnosed at 4 after waiting for an assessment for 18 months.

Hi OP,

Pretty much as PP has said, we've experienced similar. Our health visitor did our referral to the paediatrician for ASD assessment for our DS (he is 3), but I think a GP can also do this too if requested.

In our experience a HV has been better placed to do the referral for us as they can visit their nursery setting to observe them and can work more closely with key workers / SENCO etc, and the HVs are often the ones that carry out the yearly development reviews which will be submitted as evidence for your referral too.

My DS got added to the waiting list last month, we've been told it's at least a 2 year wait. We are now working with his nursery towards getting an EHCP in place for when he starts school in September.

I also self-referred him to speech and language as we are also dealing with a speech delay. This is a shorter waiting list in our area and we've already had our initial assessment after only 3 months. We're now on a wait list to have regular 1-2-1 S&L sessions which is another 3-6 months, but already the advice we've been given is helping at home and at nursery. Is this something you can do in your area? Maybe ask the HV when you speak to them as this could help in the interim?

The whole thing does feel really daunting at times, but there is so much help, resource and support out there. Ultimately it will enable us and our children to better understand how they view and process the world around them and for us to best advocate their needs as they grow up.