How many different ways to delay a statement???????.........

[deeeja]

Since I received a second paediatrician's opinion for my son, the community paediatrician, has said that my ds has to have additional blood tests, for anaemia, and then to look at the haemoglobin. They already did blood tests and they came back clear for everything, and there were no problems. I think they are just buying time so they can delay the assessment for the statement, the paediatrician is also the named LA officer to perform my son's medical for the assessment. I asked why the blood test was necessary, and the answer was very vague, I agreed to it, incase my refusal makes the assessment take even longer, but I still feel uncertain about not only subjecting my son to the trauma of another blood-test, but also whether this is just another stalling tactic.
Is this quite a common tactic, or should I go through with the blood-test. There are no heridatary conditions such as Thallesemia, to be worried about. My husband is very suspicious about it all. Can someone please advice? Would it be a reason that the statement could be delayed?
P.S I also have not heard from educ psych who is doing assesment, or salt, never mind the additional assessments I have asked for...
I reckon they are trying to delay, until there are no more places left in an autism-specific school, not that I am paranoid or anything....

[TotalChaos]

I agree with drowninginlaundry, that they might be testing for Fragile X, which is detectable by a simple blood test and causes similar problems to ASD. My friend's boy (who lives in one of those rare areas of UK where there seem to be good and prompt dx/schooling for ASD) had a test for fragile X. So I wouldn't read anything too sinister into the request for the blood test.

I wouldn't worry about blood tests causing delay - when paed suggested DS have some blood tests, I took him in 2 working days later, and got the results 7 days after that.

[drowninginlaundry]

your son doesn't need blood tests. You can refuse. It has nothing to do with diagnosing autism. They sometimes want to test Fragile X, which is a very rare cromosomal condition so unless there are some good reasons to suspect Fragile X I wouldn't bother.

It has nothing to do with statementing either. The medical advice is just one of the inputs into the statement. Your own contribution, plus the EP, will carry weight.

If you have requested a statutory assessment, and they have written to you that they are going to asses your son's special educational needs, the LEA is under a strict time limit, specified in the SEN Code of Practice, for completing the assessment and informing you of the outcome.

Your best weapon now is the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice. You can get it online, or call and it'll be sent to you, it's free (my kids are waking up so I can't find the link now!). This should be your bible, it'll tell you what the time limits are and what the LEA should do. Good luck, everyone here who has gone through the same knows what a stressful time it is for you!

[SofiaAmes]

Since they don't know what causes autism, I don't see why a blood test could help them diagnose it. Autistic children are often deficient in various vitamins etc., but supplementing them isn't going to stop them from being autistic. All sounds a little weird to me.