Ds aged 13 adhd and currently undergoing assessment for asd, saying inconclusive

[Ghostsgowoooh]

The assessors have been into school to observe last week. I then received a call the same day to tell me that they couldn't see any evidence of autism in him as he was chatty, polite and helpful to a classmate and engaged with the lesson. He now has to go in for a more in depth assessment.

Has anyone else experienced this? I spoke to his lovely head of year today who said they couldn't have picked a worse lesson to observe, he loves the lesson which is science and also he knew there was someone at the back of the class watching and reined his behaviour in.

His head of year also told me that he has noticed ds is very literal, speaks very matter of factly and has tunnel vision and can't see the bigger picture.

He struggles to do homework, refuses to do it in fact, struggles to comprehend what he's supposed to do, his written skills are terrible. He can't write out a project or understand what to put into a project, his English and maths is failing. Has no imagination or empathy or compassion. And is also aggressive.

What can I do?

OK, so he has to go for a more in depth assessment, so all is not lost.

My DS was 13 before he was diagnosed. He's seen lots of different psychologists over the years who met him once and ruled Aspergers out.

It took one psychologist to see him more than once (five times infact) and looking at him, not his anger/anxiety/disruption in class issues, but just looking specifically for autism, who finally diagnosed him.

My only advice is be persistent, and point out specifics which you know they will be looking for.

I agree with being persistant, also keep a diary of his issues/ difficulties, what causes them (if you know) and how you deal with them.

Get the lovely HoY to write a report too.

Good luck

Definately keep a diary. If possible ask any teachers to keep a small note of issues and difficulties experienced at home. It is just a one off initial assessment and he was obviously in a situation that enabled him to cope and didn't highlight his difficulties.

This happened to us too but it certainly was not the end of the road, we have had assessments at the clinic/s (we have co-morbidity with dyslexia and currently undergoing assessments at OT clinic for dyspraxia) and we will have in home assessment next year. We actually have an Aspergers diagnosis that we were given at age 4, we are under a different team due to the discovery of the dyslexia and dyspraxia tendencies and they have queried Aspergers as DS has friends and a sense of humour and so we are now being reassessed. For us we will not lose a spectrum diagnosis as he definately has ASD but it may no longer be recorded as Aspergers if that makes sense.

We are in a different country and the big difference for us with wording is funding and allocation of support so we really don't want to lose Aspergers unless there is a very comprehensive report detailing support required for ASD as we will lose a lot of support.