Autism diagnosis taking forever.

[Dana322]

This is the 1st time ive ever written anything about this on anything. My son's in primary 3. He received a stage 3 assessment at the end of nursery with a promise he was to be assessed again in term 1. From then nothing from the educational psychologist. He had an assessment for asd last May..... they told me that he had adhd traits that needed treated first but a dual diagnosis was likely. He was diagnosed with adhd in Jan this year but still nothing from autism. His senco at school said the educational psychologist will only do another assessment on him once he has an autism diagnosis. I feel like I'm banging my head off a brick wall as he struggles quite a bit at school. I'm in the North of Ireland by the way. And just wanting some advice to try and hurry the process along.

That sounds very frustrating!
Do you mind me asking what health trust it is with? I am also in NI with a P3 awaiting ASD and ADHD assessment!

South eastern

South eastern in Belfast I meant to write sorry. It's actually soul destroying!!! Feel like I'm getting pushed from pillar to post!!!

We’re Northern Trust, he was only assessed by Ed Psych for the first time at the beginning of this year but had been referred for ASD assessment before that, then the Ed Psych referred on for ADHD assessment as well, we’ve had a parent appointment with the ASD service but so far but no-one has mentioned that the query about ADHD may complicate things
We’ve been lucky with the ASD assessment as Northern Trust waiting times are not as bad as Belfast and have been told to expect an appointment in another couple of months for him to be seen.
Have you tried contacting the ASD service to ask when they expect to see him? We also found the Ed Psych who saw DS was happy to speak to us when we ran with a query so that may also be worth a try.
Also SENSationsNI are supposed to be good if you wanted to seek a private diagnosis, I think they are based in East Belfast.
Are school putting things in place to try to help him on the meantime?

His teachers fantastic and as frustrated as me. Actually talking to the hubby 2day about going private as I feel this is far 2 long. ASD told me to wait and c how his medication goes. He's been on medication now almost 5 months. It's a nightmare. Good luck with your diagnosis x