Sorry it's a long one!!
Any advice welcome, I feel a bit clueless and not sure what I should be doing!
Our son is just coming up to 2 years and 9 months, following our concerns re speech regression and behaviour we had our 2 year check up at the start of the year and they agreed he had "red flags" for development so referred us to SALT. As his parents we think he is on the autism spectrum. We had a SALT assessment a month of so after and was offered 3 therapy sessions. We only had 2 as the lady was sick and then had to wait for a review as this was cancelled a few times due to then lady being sick again (bad luck I guess!)
In this time I applied for DLA, which was given and also applied for the FEET Funding again which was given so our son started nursery twice a week in September. I also contacted portage which have started this month and comes each week for an hour (same sort of sessions as SALT) these work on attention and listening and speech. These are offered by our local council and can come until the term after he has turned 3 next year.
I also take him to a toddler group, music session and play gym session run for children with additional needs. I thought these would help with social aspects and also for me to talk to others in the same situation.
Anyway he had his SALT review today at nursery and called me after to say they will refer him to MAP for a diagnosis as she sees some improvements but again not where he should and sees issues with speech and social aspects. She was very honest and said with the waiting list it's likely to be April time!
In the meantime she has offered 3 sessions of speech therapy at nursery and 2 at home but this is the most they can offer. She advised the nursery to reapply for 1:2:1 funding based on her report as he currently gets 1 hour as he really needs adult interaction whilst there.
It seems quite a long time to wait until April.. Is there any thing I can do in the mean time? Obviously we will keep working on the goals they have set but I just feel a bit in limbo. I'm not really sure what even happens when he has a diagnosis, is it just more speech and language sessions? He won't be starting school until September 2017 and I guess we can defer this too as he wont be 5 until January 2018 should we do anything now about school? Is going private worth it to get a quicker diagnosis? We couldn't afford it but my husbands family have said they would pay.
I think the assessment today has just made me feel a bit deflated and a bit lost. He is a loving little boy, we do have massive meltdowns, not a great sleeper but his smile is to die for. He loves dancing and singing and could watch toy story over and over again if we let him. He eats well but a nightmare to sit at the table. Will run off and has no sense of danger! Hates waiting but what 2 year old does! But we wouldn't change him for the world.
Just any advise would be lovely. It seems a long road ahead.
Thank you xx