Im currently going through diagnosis with my 7 yr old DS.
we saw a paed in August who made referrals to OT, SALT, school nurse, and at the time mentioned a couple of possibilities, briefly mentioned autism, but said we need to see if his develpoment issues are following a pattern.
OT has said he pretty much definitely has DCD, and is going to be setting up a care plan with school, hes been invited on a life skills course in half term. school had completed a qustionnaire and basically said he had difficulty with everything!
SALT dud a full assessment yesterday, said that his verbal reasoning, vocabulary and problem solving were extremely good, that he has motor problems with his tongue and mouth. she said we need to see why his abilities arent being applied by him.
he seems to have a lot of individual 'quirks' he has soiling issues, generally at home rather than school, he needs almost 'forced' to try for a poo, and often soils pants and seems unaware he has, he very occasionally goes rushing off, holding his bottom as he's felt the poo coming.
he wets the bed on a semi regular basis, though goes through phases when its worse, usually after a change(eg access visits to dad)
hes very repetetive, asking same questions over and over, playing same things repeatedly, if given the chance would happily sit on the computer all day.
he doesnt socialise very well, clings to his twin sister, no other friends.
sleep is a real issue, massive tantrums if hes even slightly out of routine ( could be due to being 5 minutes late going to bed) he wakes several times a night, says hes looking to see if anythings wrong, and if anything is (ie seeing things in the dark) he gets up.
he sniffs, snorts, clicks and clucks, usually seems to be worse when hes stressed eg the SALT assessment he was clicking all the way through it.
hes got strange fears, like high buildings.
hes hard when we're out, we use a toddler wrist strap as otherwise he'd wander out onto roads etc.
he has terrible tantrums and doesnt seem to understand conseqences, despite me always sticking to my guns and being consistent.
he can read better than his age but his writing was below level 1 in his sats and maths was level 1.
he went for swimming lessons and had to be 'demoted' to the under 5 lessons as he just didnt seem to cope with the instruction, almost like he was being overloaded with everything that was going on around him?
he hates the bath or his food being hot, has to wait for them to cool down.
seeing everything written down in reports has made me realise what battles my little one has been facing and that coupled with the fact i reckon ive had about an hour a night of sleep for the last few nights is making it hard for me to cope, never mind him!
does it get easier, would a diagnosis of someting in addition to the DCD make me able to deal with it all better? that is of course if that happens in a reasonable time!
seems selfish saying about me when he's the one with the issues but i feel like it encroaches on everything, im a lone parent, dad helpfully moved 300 miles away and sees them a couple of times a year, ive got no family close by so it feels like im all alone most of the time...
im supposed to come off income support soon as theyre over 7 and ive no idea how im going to manage to hold down a job!
so, does it get easier do you get used to knowing your child is different?