DD is being assessed on Monday. What do I need to do?

[AtYourCervix]

DD2 is 13. Been waiting for assessment for 18 months and finally we have an appointment.

I have no idea what to expect and how I need to prepare for it. Any ideas?

Hi! You don't say what the assessment is for? Is it learning difficulties or mental health issues or autism? Any initial assessment involves an interview with the parent mostly and detailed questions about your child's background and symptoms. They may go as far back as pregnancy and birth so just make sure you have any details about that clearly to hand or in your mind. It might help to make a note of the main concerns/issues so you can raise them with the consultant. The initial assessment usually lasts between one and a half to two hours, but expect a lot more appointments as they are unlikely to reach any diagnosis on one assessment.
Hope that's helpful - if it's to do with ADHD or autism I can give you a lot more detaills about the assessments.
Take care.

that would have helped wouldn't it

probably aspergers.

Dd3[8] has had many assessments over the last 2 years, most of them have involved taking a history and talking about what the issues are.

I kept a diary and notes about her quirks/issues so that I wouldn't forget what I wanted to say.

How does your Dd feel about talking about her issues? Hopefully she is a bit more mature than Dd3 who sees herself as pretty much perfect and gets annoyed with me when I dare to say negative things about her.

It might be worth preparing your Dd so that it doesn't come as a shock to her when somebody asks her what she finds difficult etc.

My DD14 has had two one and a half hour 'discussions' and I have had two on my own.. Although it is not a ''diagnose we are looking at aspergers as a working hypothisis.. I think its easier to do this till we have explored more. My tears lasted a few days, denial kicked in but the more i read the more it all made sense. Don't worry I feel much better and less stressed than i did before. I have done lots of reading which is helping, the more i understand the less stress all around. DD does not know yet, she will in a few weeks time and there will be a meet with the school soon too. I used to keep a diary but have stopped as i used to just record the negative - i am going to now do a positive notebook.

thanks. i willl try and remember what happened when and what i think she struggles with. I'll ask her to write some stuff down. she'd be ok with that i think. she knows what she'l=ss being assessed for.

Have some questions that you would really like answers to, written down. It's so easy to forget them if the appt gets a bit emotional for you, or just anyway if your brain is as tired as mine!

Eg.When will you see my DD next? Can you let me know the DX today? If not how long until you can? Do you think AS is likely? (I won't hold you to it!) I'm not afraid of 'labels,' I just want to get support in place ASAP. etc.

Or your priorities. What do you, ideally, want to get from the appointment? Make sure you let them know that and don't let them go without answering. I've been to too many meetings myself, not unprepared exactly, just frustrated that it finished and I then remembered loads of questions I hadn't had answered. Good luck.

How did it go, AtYourCervix?