back from the paediatrician

[hanaka88]

They are going to test ds for autistic spectrum disorder, epilepsy and do some chromosome tests to see if there is a physical reason for his regression....

made me want to cry...it's going to take so long...getting another appointment in 4 months!!!

also after taking all the details down the paed asked what we all do as a profession and after hearing we are all teachers he then stated 'well you should be telling me what you think it is not writing all this down'

I said I think it is autistic spectrum disorder but I am not an expert, to which the grandparents stated, we have been teachers for years but have no experience of working with autistic children.....I wish I was an expert....this is going to be a long process waiting for reports from nursery, inclusion, OT, speech therapist, paed, etc etc etc.

also we got questionnaires...what are these for???

Did you get a questionnaire with a whole lot of 'agree' 'disagree' boxes. I think there's one called connors? They have to be filled in by you and his teacher? They can be used to confirm a diagnosis of ADHD. But our first paed asked us to fill it in for a dx of aspergers, and then our second paed looked it at and said - well he doesn't have ADHD.

Very strange comment from the paed re you should be telling me.

It is a long process - it took us a year to get a diagnois, and it was a straight forward diagnisis. But with hindsight I can see that the time didn't matter. I got no more support before or after the dx. After our first paed appointment when I realized that he thought it might be Aspergers, I just assumed it was and started to research it and everything. And it's just gone from there...

As you see from other threads on here. By the time you get a dx it's often an anti-climax. But unfortunately it doesn't bring with it any magic help.

Anyway, good luck. And keep posting here.

It's just funding really as the LEA and inclusion team being funny with it....we just got 3 long questionnaires for me and his dad to fill in together, just need to wait for a time we can get together now as we are separated.

I know it was a strange comment...I know some teachers think they are experts on special needs and I have had some training in special needs but I really don't think I'm qualified to diagnose my son lol....bit random but oh well.

One of the questionnaires does seem like an agree/disagree one yes...but they are so hard to fill in as he used to be able to do stuff but regressed...one seems to be asking what he was like at every stage of development.... can't say I remember too well as he seemed to develop normally for the first 2 - 3 years then regressed quickly

I know how you feel about it taking so long . When we went to the CAMHS appointment and they said at the end of a couple of hour assessment "Oh, he has been referred to the wrong team, we are the anxiety team and he needs to be seen by the autism specialists and you need to wait another 16weeks." I could have cried too.
I am looking to the fact that by the time the summer holidays are over I should be half way through my wait.
They gave me a questionnaire to fill in to help in assessing for Aspergers, apparently normally it would have been filled in at the autism assessment but they wanted it back earlier.

oh dear! I had the same problem with ds...referred to wrong type of paed...but I rang the secretary and checked everything first thank god...cut my waiting time from 4 weeks to 6 days and with the right paed... I'll be calling to check from now on!

Glad they will be testing him..I think it just sounds like a rather poor joke by the paed to make you feel comfortable.

haha maybe!....I just kind of smiled it off anyway, I don't care as long as he gets stuff done! He said something about not being able to do one assessment until he started school as he was no longer in pre-school and not able to assess there.....I dont know which one he was on about though as he said the speech therapist will still assess...I dont know lol

I was asked how much I knew about aspergers and asc.. And then told start reading, as I need to become my own expert on ds2 and it won't go away, but it was about management.

Haven't had a lot of help since then, but I'm getting good at knowing who to politely nudge.. However most of ds2s help has either come from us at home knowing more about it, and trying different stratagies and seeing what works.
And MN SN is a great wealth of information and support.

I know I have read a lot on asd and my auntie is a child psychologist who has written a book on it and I have her on the other end of the phone...which is probably quite annoying for her lol