Possible ASD - what to ask at first appointment?

[laurabatty]

We are on the waiting list to see a NHS consultant for our DS (2) who has GDD and is showing signs of autism, which was diagnosed privately. Please could you give me some advice as to what we should be asking and focusing on when we go to this appointment. We really don't want to come away not having mentioned/ asked about half of what we should have done - it'll probably be a long wait till the next one! Thanks

Not sure what to advise.

If you already have a private dx of autism are you just asking for confirmation of the dx by the NHS?

Are you going to divulge the private dx to the NHS consultant?

TBH Paeds dx and that's it. There is no support package that falls into place automatically. Most support post-dx comes from within the educational system

Sorry, my OP wasn't clear - DS hasn't yet been diagnosed with ASD just GDD.

Make sure you tell them everything you have concerns about - make a list beforehand would help so you don't forget things on the day.

If they do give you a diagnosis (they might or might not on the day itself, depends what kind of assessment they do at the time - more likely they'll give you a date for a future appt for a more in-depth assessment), but if they do give a dx, ask them what support there is for you all (for ds, and for you as a family). Ask what happens now - will he be on waiting list for eg SALT, etc?

When's the appointment?

The thing is that you may well not get a dx at the first appt - and there'll be a long wait for the next one. And then even if you do get a dx, this won't automatically bring with it any actual support or help for ds.

The most important thing imo at this stage is not the dx you get, but what intervention and help you can start to give to ds, what help you can give him for his specific difficulties regardless of what dx he has. Eg Speech & Language support, look at Hanen (More than Words, etc), PECS, ABA (behavioural analysis), etc.