First appointment with paediatrician - what to expect

[gabbybaby]

What should I expect out of a first paediatrician appointment for my DD5 (yr1)? Are they going to be assessing her, or talking about the issues that we think she has? Apparently it will take approx. 70 mins. Her issues are possibly ADHD, dyslexia, and sensory issues. We've had an OT assessment, and her teacher has written a report of her issues in the classroom, so they should have already read those. I know she's too young to assess for dyslexia, but the Senco has done an early dyslexia screening test on her. Is this appointment usually an assessment, or for them to find out what we're hoping to get out of the process? If it's the latter, I don't know what we hope to achieve! Ultimately, one to one help in the classroom as she's not progressed this year at all. Advice on what to expect please! Thanks

I think it differs from area to area. DS had his first peads appointment last month, he spent about an hour talking to me about DS and going through everything (I suggest having someone else with you to keep your Dd entertained!) during that time he was watching DS and his interactions then he talked to DS a bit and did a physical examination of him.

At the end he told us he is showing a lot of signs of ASD and possible ADHD but locally it is camhs who do the full assessment so he has reffered us (but they have a 12 month wait) and will see us again in 6 months. He also arranged a load of blood tests and checked that he had already had other refferals done.

I took copies of things like his caf, IEP, a list of my concerns which he copied and left with his notes.

Good luck!

Thanks. I expect something similar then. They've already been sent the OT assessment, but I've got a pile of different reports already printed out to take with (2 S&L reports, IEP, OT assessment, teacher's report of her issues, dyslexia screening results).

Did you go in there and say what your thoughts were (ie, did you suggest ASD/ADHD), or did that come from their own observations?

My husband's coming with to keep her entertained, or out of the room if I don't want her to hear some of what we say.

And sorry for my ignorance, but what's a caf?

It came from his observations, when he mentioned ASD I felt like saying "no shit Sherlock" but the mention of ADHD came as a suprise.

caf is a common assessment framework - school implemented it to basically bring everything together (he has medical needs to) and that was what triggered the refferals e needed

oh ok. I don't think a caf is relevant for us :)
thanks