Steps to getting a diagnosis?

[neverputasockinatoaster]

Hello.

I posted a while back about my son where I wondered if he sounded like he had an ASD. His teacher has now raised her concerns and I now feel we need to seek some help.

I'm not sure what I should do? I know I need to visit my GP and ask for a referral but should I go alone or take DS... he's an extremely intelligent young man but prone to worrying and I'm concerned that if I go with himhe will then stress about there being something wrong with him!

Also are private diagnosis accepted by schools etc? (Am thinking time more than anything.... I know the speed at which our local trust works!

You can ask the school nurse to make a referral instead.
It is difficult talking about children in front of them, so you could go without your DS and then if the GP wants to see him as well, go back.

i took my DS but DH kept him outside some gps wont ref without having seen them but she was very nice and just asked me questions and said to bring him in at the end she asked him how he was feeling and how was school (just to say she had seen him i think) then ref him to a paed at the child development clinic. ive been advised not to get private unless things go to trib later on as the LA will only take advice from the ed psy , salt and ot they send you to, and yes your right they can be slow very slow but the ed psy will probably want to come into school to observe over a period of time (they dont all do it like this though)some peoples DX take a long time mine was fairly quick but i think depends on areas and the paed ect

I initially went to GP alone to start proceedings re DS as it does not feel right talking about him when he is present.

I wrote all the details and questions I had down, so I wouldn't forget anything - which i always do otherwise. GP did follow up with a brief appt with DS present later on, but I had already had the initial details process done so was much easier.

We then got a ref to a lovely paed at our CDC. When he started school he saw an EP and at CDC a child psych. It was the ADOS assessment which confirmed his diagnosis, eventually after many appts with above specialists. It took a little while to diagnose properly because he was only three when concerns were started to be raised. Hope this helps.

I went to the GP without DS.