Waiting for ASD assessment

[Vivdawes]

I'm fuming! My daughter has been out of school since June 18 when we decided to take her out and home educate. She was referred by our GP for an assessment for ASD as she has a lot of traits and yesterday discovered that she's got to wait another 7 months or more before they can see her! Absolutely disgusting! Poor thing is making the most of her situation and doing her best but we often get very little done and she's rarely willing to go out and can't socialise too much. Just needed to rant as the services unless you can afford to go private are unbelievably slow. 😡

Hi firstly would like to say I'm very new to mom's net and have come on here myself got advice. I came across your post, I've recently 2 days back took my son you my GP with concerns about his behaviour and possible ASAP or ADHD. May I ask how long you've been in this process withe your daughter? The more digging I do the length of time for a diagnosis seems to run into the years.

Sadly the services are very stretched and it is a long process.

However, it does seem like your placing a lot on getting a diagnosis? That won’t change who she is, or her struggles (although the process may help understand them more) and in most areas it’s unlikely to make any difference Support wise.

I would focus on finding ways to help her - research things she is finding hard, talk to other parents, attend parent carer groups.

Is your aim to get her back into education? If so then look at applying for an ehc plan - again even if no plan is issued in the end then the process may be helpful in finding ways to support her

yes it is hard to wait another 7 months, but you are at least quicker than some areas. (26 months here) not that that fucking helps really. if they had told you the wait at the beginning, you might have looked into private diagnosis. by the time we found out the wait, it would have taken almost as long to wait for that. the whole thing is a bloody nightmare and absolute disgrace, but all you can doo is seek support where you can.

with ds we found parent information sessions helped, though they were mainly post diagnosis.

with dd, we had to go to the gp and find alternative routes to get her support.

I'm very aware of the support available for autistic people and children in this area and it's '0' as her age also means that she's too old for some services or too young for others! I'm not expecting anything to come out of the diagnosis apart from a certainty.
I have found a counsellor who can see young people on the spectrum but it's so hard getting my daughter to go to things and currently home educating her is challenging. I'm in no way going to try to get her back into school as it traumatised her and getting a ehcp will take a long time.

Been waiting since July 18.

All I can say is that I’ve been advised that in my area, South Devon, that the waiting list is 12-18 mths for pre 5 ie nursery age. Once children reach 5 the waiting list is longer, 18 mths plus.
We are just about to be referred to waiting list. Ds is almost 4, in Jan. It’s nursery who have supported me completely and agree a referral is necessary. Up until nursery, I was talking to a brick wall.
Could you consider applying privately? Dint forget you can apply for DLA without a diagnosis. This may help you either find her diagnosis sooner or buy tools to support your dd learning needs. Even if you have to spend a chunk in reading stuff yourself, or paying for a cognitive behavioural therapist who specialises, DLA will help towards this.

It's horrible waiting isn't it. My ds has just turned 9, he was finally referred in November by the peadeatrician and we have no idea how long the wait will be for him to be seen for assessment. It's taken over 4 years already of the peadeatrician waiting to see if he grows out of his issues before he would agree to refer. So frustrating when you just want answers and support.