Seeing GP to start talking about dd and possible asd

[neddle]

Last week I received a dx of Aspergers for myself, I'm 34 and this has only come about recently.
I've had concerns for a while that 1 or more of my children (4) also have some kind of asd as well.
Today after school I will be taking dd(11) to ask the GP to make a referal or whatever needs to be done to look at her.

What should I be saying? Will he ask yes/no questions or should I be prepared with a list of what we think her difficulties are?

I think it would be wise to have a list. My experience is that many GPs lack knowledge and training when it comes to Autism.

The first time I went to see the gp, ds spent 20 mintues hiding underneath an old-fashioned, low armchair. Right at the end of the appointment he he peeped out and looked at the Dr, who then refused to refer him because "he can't be autistic becaues he just made eye contact with me".

At which point I took out my double-sided A4 list and read outloud from it until he agreed to refer ds.

We have since moved, and his current gp is great, but I would be prepared to find yourself the much more knowledable one, and you may need to put your foot down! Good luck, I think having dx yourself means they will take you seriously.

I was advised to ask for a referral by our HV as there were some red flags raised at DS's 2 yr review. The first GP was useless and implied it was our fault for not sending him to nursery. I felt like she just wanted to get us out of there as fast as possible.

My HV persuaded me to try again with a different GP and I went with a long list of concerns. Luckily the second GP actually listened to me and made a referral to the community paediatrician. Paediatrician has now referred on for a panel assessment, but it's a long process with lots of waiting.

I hope you get a sympathetic GP, but if not then ask for a second opinion. I think having a list of things you are concerned about is useful, both for the GP (mine sent my list along with the referral) and for yourself (so you don't leave the appointment and realise you forgot to mention half of your worries).

Good luck!

A list of absolutely every concern you have even the smallest that you wouldn't think would mean anything, development mile stones, if there are any concerns from the school (although sometimes there isn't), if any observations have been done at school take any reports which you were given. It was actually a report from the LEA's outreach team which got our GP writing out the referral letter 2 minutes after we passed it to him, we didn't really have to go through any info and my son wasn't even there.

Thanks for the help, I'll put together a list now.