My DD(14) has been referred by our GP for ASD assessment at The Retreat. Does anyone have any recent experience of what the process will involve and how long it might take (the GP said the waiting list was about a year).
My DD has always been quirky, very bright and very entertaining as a little girl. She showed little signs - very rigid in which parent did which jobs around the house, hand flapping, an amazing memory for what people looked like and exactly what they were wearing, she’d always only describe people/teachers/friends by what they looked like and wore rather than what they were actually like.
Anyway as she’s got older her sensory issues have increased. She can’t stand noise in particular. The sound of someone coughing or sniffing, breathing even can get her to the point of tears. She won’t eat at all at school and avoids going out for meals with extended family because she hates seeing and hearing people eating. She can’t tolerate things like pins and needles, literally goes into a massive panic of drama if she has a blocked nose.
BUT she’s so awesome with people. She could be trapped in a lift with an old woman and would be chatty and charming (she’d probably need to lie down in a dark room to recharge after it). This worries me as I wonder if she’ll be charming and delightful in an assessment and they’ll not see the anxious wreck that we know she is.
Do they have magic ways of seeing through the polite public persona?
Sorry for the long post.