Assessment.. Confused

[hibbledibble]

For a long time dd (4, nearly 5) has been having difficulties, and her nursery have agreed that something is not right.

The main difficulty is her behaviour, which can be really extreme at times. She can have melt downs that last for hours and involve her screaming, kicking, hitting, biting etc. I have had to had to physically restrain her as she tried repeatedly to run away and into the road. She can lack empathy, and say some very disturbing things. She is also very hyperactive, impulsive etc, and has moderate speech delay.

I saw my health visitor re a referral and have been referred to the child development centre. I now have received the paperwork prior to the first assessment and it is clear this is an assessment for autism.

I'm pretty confused as I don't think autism fits with her at all. She is very good at making friends, and very good at imaginative play. As a parent I would have though ADHD would be more likely.

I'm just feeling a little bit lost. Can anyone advise.

If she doesn't have an ASD then she won't be diagnosed with one. Assessments are just that - looking at behaviours - historical and current and looking at development.
There is a lot of cross over with symptoms and signs for each of the prominent neuro developmental disorders - ASD, ADHD and dyspraxia. The assessment will look at all these.

It's very daunting going through the assessments. My advice would be to just talk truthfully and openly to the peads without trying to think about the outcome.

As an aside getting a diagnosis of ASD is not the end of the world - a diagnosis is not a prognosis. In fact, it's been positive for my DS who sees it as an identity and helps him accept who he is.

Thank you, I think I just need a bit of hand holding. I realise a diagnosis is great as it can help access support etc.

It's hard to explain how I feel. She seems to be very different to me to what I would expect from a child with autism, but then my knowledge is limited. Something is not right though, and I would just like some support, both so we can manage her behaviour better, and she can access school when she starts soon.

The assessment will look at the whole child and then look if a diagnosis is suitable.

Worth remembering that each child with ASD is different so just because she doesn't tick all the boxes doesn't mean it isn't ASD. DS is awaiting an assessment at the moment for ASD/ADHD but he is pretty good at imaginative play (with his own rules though!)

I read something with regards to girls with ASD being quite good at mimicking "normal" behaviours which can mask things sometimes. Especially with regards to imaginative play.

Good luck!

Thank you sirzy I too have heard that girls can present differently.

Everyone always tell me 'she can't have autism' but I guess they aren't experts.

She does go into a playground not knowing anyone, and make friends in seconds. The problems come later with regulating emotion etc.

As others have said, just be open with everyone you come across.

Despite obviously meeting the criteria, my dd was failed for years, both by health & education. She only got her dx when she failed miserably at high school. It was horrible.

I'm really pleased you've been referred for assessment while your dd is so young.

When we went through assessment process with dd (to assess for asd) we were given various questionnaires to complete - one was for adhd, which dd CLEARLY didn't have (quite the opposite in fact), my 'knowledge' is that they collate the evidence from all answers given and go from there as to where to assess further.

My DS (5) is currently going through assessment - I get what your talking about!
I have no idea if DS has 'anything' - I question myself regularly "is it my parenting?" "Is he just a difficult child?" Etc etc

But what I do know is that the spectrum is long and I don't think any child ticks particular boxes.
Since entering this process (on the schools recommendation) I have been receiving help on behavioural techniques from school nurse and DSs CAF is starting some 1-2-1 in September to work on emotions (DS is easily emotional and reacts explosively). So I'm getting support.

I have concluded to myself that if assessment shows nothing, then I have crossed that bridge. Also should anything come up again, I can refer back to assessment in 2015.

Feel free to pm me if you want to chat in more detail with someone else going through assessment