WHAT DOES THE ASD ASSESSMENT INVOLVE?

[paganmummsy]

This is a follow up from my last thread HELP AND ADVICE, for all that were kind enough to give me advice i am pleased to say that i have my son booked in with Dr Peter Congdon for a formal assessment, not only will he assess him for autism/aspergers he will look into everything. This will take place on this coming Monday and i have never felt so in charge of the whole situation as now i feel that this will be the be all and end all and the real work for the right of an education for my son will begin.Also if CAHMS DO!!!! have my sons diognosis wrong i can present them with the evidence and tell them to start doing thier job properly to prevent other families going through what we have.
Can anybody tell me what to expect when i go for the assessment? What tests are carried out etc...? Is there a special test for autism? All help is very much appprietiated.

that is exactly how i feel, i need to get myself past that barrier and go in with all guns blazing and tell myself that i am right and find the balls to just tell them straight

Go back to Dr Congdon!! He is a pussycat. Bribe your son with ten hours of Nintendo or a sack of chocolate, whatever is huge enough to motivate him. As your son is autistic, he won't like stuff he does not know, so tell him what to expect, that is Dr C is very gentle and kind, he is like Dr Who, he helps people and is very clever and has some magic puzzles he needs help with. You son will be his assistant! Dr C will be doing loads of easy puzzles with your son, some on numbers, some on words, some on pictures (eg spot the difference) and some jigsaws. Tell him the more puzzles he completes, the more sweeties he gets etc!! He could bring a sheet in with a load of stickers, and every time he completes a task, Dr C could put a sticker on, or your son could do it if he wants. Dr C will be very amenable to that. You need to go back to him as this Dr is the only Educational Psychologist who understands children who have both difficulties and abilities, and he also understands the interplay between them. He is vastly experienced and very clever. Ask him if you can tape the after assessment interview so you don't forget anything, and make sure you are clear with him what you need the report for (a diagnosis? A statement? particular help in the classroom? An understanding of your son's level?)

Good luck!! :)

WOW, I'm so pleased you bumped up this thread.

Never heard of Dr Peter Congdon, had a quick look at his website.

THANK YOU

Yes, please does he have a clinic in London?

Can someone direct me towards his website. Tried to googled it but haven't a lot apart from articles in the press related to him.

Wow, this is an old thread.

We took Dd1 to Dr Congdon 18 years ago, he was lovely and was based in Solihull, dont know if he still is.

When we saw him he was doing alot of work on lefthandedness.

Will try to find a website for him

Try googling The gifted children's information centre

I wonder if his ears are burning!! lol...muchos respect and appreciation for Dr Congdon here...the man will be flooded with new refferals soon!!!

You're right! I didn't checked the year. I thought it had been started this july lol.

Yes I am curious that the OP thought he would be able to diagnose her son

As far as I was aware he tested IQ's and for dyslexia. I wouldn't have thought he spent enough time with a child to assess for ASD.

I could be wrong though and he was excellent, he wrote a fab report for Dd1 which 2 out of her 4 HT's took very seriously.

Yes Leonie he was passionate about lefties and really helped Dd1 with her writing. She still has lovely handwriting.

I'm a lefty and so is DS!!

Is there any research linked with leftys and asd, etc???...anyone know anything about this ?

Both my Dd'S with Asd are lefties as is my cousin

I have read that it is common but I dont think any official research has been done.

Maybe we should do our own

www.dyslexiabooks.biz

I'm left handed and so is DS....