At what age can ASD be diagnosed in the UK?

[Soutty]

Hi

My DS is 4.5. I have been repeatedly fobbed off by professionals telling me to wait and see, that his speech delay may wonderously improve all by itself, that his tantrums may be down to a strong personality and boys will be boys, blah blah blah.

I have him on a VBA programme. Paying for a consultant but doing all the tutoring mysef - have seen an improvement in him but have reached the stage where I know that he either has a lanuage disorder or ASD or both.

So I have decided to pay for private assessments by a clinical psychologist and a speech therapist, both of whom were recommended to me by my consultant.

The CP told me when I rang to make an appointment to have him assessed that he is too young and that all the ASD tests are geared towards children aged 6 and up. Is it really true that no one in the UK can carry out definitive tests on children aged 4.5? Really?

To say that I'm pissed off is an understatement. I've just made the decision to get private assessments for him with a view to applying for a statement (as the NHS people "involved" if you can call it that - with DS have told me I have fat chance and no chance) in the hopen that I can say, there you go, deal with that you munters and it seems that yet again I've hit a bloody brick wall.

Sorry for the rant but is this really true and if not I'd be really grateful if anyone can recommend a good private CP that can diagnose ASD in the under sixes.

Is it not possible that a child could meet the ASD criteria at 2 but have grown out of at least some of them by the age of 6?
Is this why paeds (the one we see for example) are sometimes reluctant to diagnose early and go for the "watch and wait" option?
DD would not get a diagnosis at the moment as she has no rigidity of thought or behaviours but is it possible she could develop rigidity as she matures?

Meant do some 2 yr olds outgrow their ASD traits?

I think you might be overstating the link between a diagnosis of something, and help being provided in school. If your ds is struggling to access his educational setting, then support shoud be going into place regardless of whether he has a diagnosis of anything yet, or not.
Equally, there are people I have come across who have been given a diagnosis, who actually cope fine for 90 - 95% of their time in school.

'Is it not possible that a child could meet the ASD criteria at 2 but have grown out of at least some of them by the age of 6?'

Yes this is possible. But the possibility is most likely BECAUSE of early intervention iyswim.

I see starlight. In that case I am even more determined to push for early intervention for DD regardless of an official diagnosis.
If we get one, all well and good but I want DD statemented and given 1 to 1 teaching support from the start of Reception.
Thanks for explaining that.

Just wanted to say, on the private assessment front, , I tried and tried to get an appointment with Daphne Keene (emailing several times, leaving numerous messaes for her secretary etc) but failed to get any response. So we have gone with the London Children's Practice in Wimpole Street, assessments have been happening this week (SALT and OT so far) and we are seeing the peadiatrician there on Friday. Will let people know how it goes. Seems good so far.

aliceinboots

The so called milestones are for a statistically typical child. All children can develop different abilities at different ages and at different rates until the age of maturation. Research is still plotting the neural development path which almost starts from conception.
Research has found the specific causes of ASD issues are difficult to define, as new technologies will be required to provide the answers we really need.
As yet there is no clinical battery of diagnostic tests for ASD, and so those on the borderline of the diagnostic criteria may require more time to confirm a diagnosis.

BackforGood

"I think you might be overstating the link between a diagnosis of something, and help being provided in school."

Children need to be able to fully develop their cognitive skills and abilities, before formal education begins. And the age of maturation is biological issue determined by human evolution. And we stop growing out of development issues between the aged of 6-8 years of age. As part of our natural development we also develop alternative compensating skills and abilities to work around our natural weaknesses, deficits, and disabilities. And again most of this happens during the build up to the age of maturation.
And yes some who do have long term disabilities may be able to get through the early stages of the education system, but the disability will always be there and cause problems.
This happened to me and I wish I had found out about the nature of my disability when i was at school, not when in dispute with my employer at the age of 49. Had i known about the nature of my disability at school age I could made better choices of subjects to study, and better career option decisions. And have what most consider typical levels of self esteem.

I'm not sure what you are questioning about what you've quoted me as saying, dolfrog ?
My point for the OP was - getting a diagnosis of something doesn't automatically mean that a Statement will then follow. Equally, not having a diagnosis shouldn't prevent a good school (or Nursery) from putting into place support or adjustments that enable the child to access what the other children are receiving.
Many people think there is some kind of automatic link between diagnosis of a condition and Statutory Assessment, but there isn't, even though there are obviously many cases where they will sit hand in hand.
Is your ds at school or Nursery now Soutty ? What provision is made for him now ? Is he having difficulty there or are his needs being met ? Where is he on the Code of Practice ?

marvinthemartian
" especially in the light of one of your other threads - highlighting how crucial intensive early intervention can be - how can you advocate waiting in the face of evidence like that?"

That particular thread was prompted by a link provided on Twitter by a leading UK ASD researcher. And their comment accompanying the link on Twitter was that the linked article demonstrated that there was little research based support that early intervention provides long term benefits. How others interpret that article is another matter.

The real reason for that thread was to open up the mysteries of ABA, which most of the advocates usually fail to provide details of the programs possible content, which i consider more like the behaviour of a snake oil salesman. I have since found more research based information as to what they mean when they are advocating ABA.

If you have followed any of my contributions over the years you will know that I prefer natural development, working with and understanding your own natural strengths and weaknesses and I like to know about the research behind any form of remedial program, most of which have better marketing than actual performance results for our children.

Who is this Daphne Keen woman? Does she work out of the child development dept at the homeopathic hosp in Tunbridge Wells? What happened to Sameena Shakoor? - she was always the autism consultant who did all the diagnosing and got her training in ASD direct from the NAS. Has she moved on?

ooh, it was Linda Ripley (Rapley?) in my days of waiting interminably at the homeopathic hospital!

Daphne Keen

Sorry, have not read the whole thread, just the title. My DS was dx at 2, on his 2nd birthday in fact! We waited 6 months for that appointment. People often say we were lucky to get an early dx but the real shame is that it was so obvious from birth that dx at 2 was very reasonable. That was 14 years ago.

Davros, did your son display rigidity of behaviour/thought at the age he was diagnosed? Am assuming he must have. Could I ask how it manifested itself in such a young child?

Thanks

LeonieDelt, sorry if you've answered this before but did your 25 month old have obvious, classic symptoms?
My DD was first seen by the HV aged just 2 who said her quirks, including no speech, laughing to herself, staring up at ceilings and walls, no social communication with peers, being in a "world of her own" were all fairly standard behaviour for a NT toddler. My GP backed this up and continued to do so until I insisted on a SALT, audiology and paed referral when she was just over 2.5 yrs.
I just want some idea of how obvious it has to be for a child to be diagnosed this early and for the professionals and parents to be confident it is the right label.

Leonie, do you feel the early diagnosis helped her? Is she in mainstream school?