Strange diagnosis appointment - aspergers/adhd

[dairylea4brains]

Hi all, very new here and first post so hello and thank you in advance for any replies.

My 7 yr old ds has an appt in feb with psychiatrist for formal dx of aspergers+adhd. In October he had his initial assessment with cahms. I have been asked to attend alone as "from weight of school reports and therapists observations at assessment" and that it was a "classic presentation" there will be no need for ds to attend, instead I will be asked questions on his developmental stages.

This seems very strange to me and wondered if anyone else has experienced this?? Do not see how the psych can diagnose without actually seeing him!

Welcome, dairylea. Never heard of this, but I guess the bottom line is whether you are happy with this diagnosis? Who was the 'therapist' who observed him? Was it someone qualified to diagnose?

If you are happy with outcome of this assessment then you have been spared the many months/years of hoop jumping and general going-round-the-houses-and-filling-in-the-same-forms that most people seem to go through. But..... if you feel this process does not do him justice then why not ask if he can attend, because 'doesn't need to attend' does not necessarily mean he is 'not allowed' to!

Perhaps others have had a similar experience.

Handy xxxx

Dd3 was only seen 3 times at CAMHS in the 12 months it took to get her diagnosis. She came with us to the first appointment and didnt speak to anyone. The second time she did some work with the MH nurse around imagination and the third time was when we met the psychiatrist and again she didnt speak to anyone.

The psychiatrist assessed her using a DISCO assessment which is a questionaire which takes a long time to fill in, it asks all kinds of questions and asks about the scale of difficulties, the prof who carries aout the test scores the answers and at the end the total scored helps them to make a diagnosis, they also use any other reports such as SALT,OT and School to inform their decision.

My Dd3 has definitely got the correct diagnosis and I felt confident in the process, I am sure that your psychiatrist will tell you much more about the process that they use.

Good luck

Oh and forgot to say Hi and welcome to the board

A good part of these assessment involve a questionnaire about details of the child's behaviour. I think there's one called the Australian questionnaire and another called Connor questionnaire or something similar. While DH and I were answering these endless questions with the psychiatrist, DS2 was playing in another room with the psychologist, but I think the psychologist's observations and assessment were just to confirm the results of the questionnaire.

It was a psychotherapist at cahms who initially saw him, he's also had assessments done at school by the local authority. Apparently the reason he doesn't have to attend was due to all the information from the school and he basically acted exactly the same at the first appointment as he does everywhere and did not hold back. I did a Connor questionnaire as did the school.

Maybe they will ask to see him after they have spoken to me?? Just worried about what questions they will ask as my memory is poor and one if the questions I do know about is the talking one as its either aspergers or hf autism depending on his speech development.

Thanks for your answers, I think I will decide on if I'm satisfied after the appointment. Just assumed they would need to do tests on him of some sort.

It's taken 2 years so far but now it's all happening very fast!!

First appt is quite often background and detail from parents. Ds's psych saw dh and I alone the first time, then him for three sessions, then just dh and I again for dx appt.

All the questions they asked us (he was nine at the time) were about his development between his fourth and fifth birthdays. I had two year old twins at the time! I ended up saying "I don't remember" for most of them!

3b1g- glad I'm not the only one!!! Luckily my parents have ds documented on video as he was 1st grandchild so will have to put aside a day to go through it all!!!

The only 'test' that DS2 had to do was a sort of game with different social scenarios that for each one he had to guess what the person actually meant. He also drew a picture of an object from one angle and made a texture collage. Not sure how much of this was diagnostic assessment and how much was childcare while we were trying to rack our brains about what he'd been like five years previously.

DS1 has aspergers. He could have had a dx from my parental interview and a 30min observation in school, as that is when the professionals knew he had AS. However, they decided to cross the 't's and dot the 'i's and gave him an ADOS test which unsurprisingly he scored highly on (due to some sceptics from the non-health professional world). It is therefore quite possible that if he has already been observed that he won't need any further observation.

Thank you, at the initial appt they were watching him play and interacting with ds2 who is 14 mths an writing loads down. Also asked him questions a lot. Maybe those notes served as the observation part especially as he was "a classic presentation"

Really appreciate all your replies. I'm still learning so much. Only recently learnt that the constant "I'm hungry" I get from him could be sensory!