initial appointment at psychologist - what do I tell ds?

[ernest]

I suuspect something like dyspraxia. have docs appointment tomorrow. What on earth do i say to him?

oh please. Anybody who's had their child assessed for a sn, someone must have attended an appointment with their ds. I haven't got a clue what to say. Obviously don't want to tell him we're worried there's something wrong with him, but he's not stupid and he's going to ask why we're going to the docs. No one got any ideas? I

I don't know I'm afraid, but bumping for you.... someone will come along

how old is ds? is he aware that he finds some things harder than his peers? is he frustrated by that? have no experience but i imagine if it were my dc i'd say something along the lines of "you know you get cross when you find it tricky to do x? well we're going to see if there's anything we can do to help" and leave it at that. how does that sound to you? if he's totally unaware of the difference it would be trickier though. sorry if this is utterly unhelpful i just didn't want you to feel ignored

We told my DD along the same lines as puppydavies suggests, we also wrote a bullet style note outlining all our concerns so that we didn't have to discuss our DD with her sitting there listening. She went out to be weighed and measured and we did speak to the dr in more detail then. There must be nothing worse that sitting and listening it negative comments about yourself.

I can't remember what we said to DD. Something along the lines of the doctor checking out how her joints work.

I do remember writing out a list as Magicmayhem did. The community paed was very dismissive but when she was referred for Physio & OT the list was a huge help. Good luck, I hope it goes OK.

Is he aware of his difficulties, if so just say you are meeting someone who will play and talk to him to find out whether they can help amke thinsg easier. Does he already see an ergotherapist or similar via school/kindergarten?

puppydavies that sounds pretty good. magicmayhem, tht's exactly what I mean & don't want. lizs yes he has ergo & speech therapy already. We've not even discussed the appointment yet - it was supposed to be last week but were in UK and his nan died (sort of) unexpectedly, so events sort of spirelled and we've only been home 5 minutes and dh is moving to Milan on Thursday so so much family stuff going on it's sort of been put very much on a back burner.

List also v. good idea. Will do that tonight. thanks all.

Will try to talk to him. WIll let you know how it goes. I don't even know what to expect at docs and now dh cana't come with, as Wednesday is his last day, so I'vve got to go alone. need frazzled/stressed emoticon

A lot on your plate atm, sorry about his nan List is a good idea also describe this appointment in a very low key way as an extension of the ergotherapy/salt whichever he enjoys more !