<sigh> Educational Psychologist "saw nothing suggestive of ASD" today

[QueenEagle]

...when she observed him at playgroup for an hour.

More confused than ever now

Consultant has said his behaviour in her consulting room and the history from us IS suggestive of a social/communication disorder but the Ed Psych says she believes it could be a behavioural problem instead and suggested ways of not using negative parenting

Also that with his (significant) speech difficulties, he is exerting some control in his life and that is why he soils himslef.

Don;t know what to think now

Oh well erm why am i not surprised?

Ed Psychs are employed and paid by the LEA,s IIRC, and they are told to not dx so much (i know this because our private psych does freelance for an LEA and told me this).

Its good that you have the Consultant on your side, you sound in a similar situation to us with DD, yesterday at the CDC i informed them that the Ed Psych and SENCO say that DD doesnt have these difficulties and in fact they wrote a report saying so, and she said "i can tell you what to do with that, but thats not up to me" .

This also happened with DS, we were informed that we had been given a placement on a parenting course as DS problems were down to us parenting (before his dx) and we refused, actually i phoned the Psych and said "until you run courses telling parents how to cope with ASD then i wont be coming on any".

They will try every which way they can to put you off getting a dx/statement.

Up tyo now, jenk, I was thinking how easy it all seemed.

Thankfully his SALT is very much in favour of a statement for Language Provision, and a senior SALT I haPPENEd to bump into at work last night said to accept this even if the statement did not cover all his other needs as they can be sneaked into his LP.

A senior CDC lady is very much open minded as she has known ds3 for about 18 months on and off and done quite a bit of work with him at home over the last year. Luckily she values the opinion of the Consultant very highly.

There is not much more that can be done until after the Professionals meeting on the 21st.

I see now why lots of you on here have been sooo frustrated by the process and I am only at the very beginning of it.

These bloody people always try to lay the blame at the parents door. I had this with ds when he started school. He has always been a lively and challenging little boy but he was ok at home and at preschool. Things went drastically wrong when he started school. The SENCO actaully suggested to me that we apply to go on Little Angels to help us with our parenting skills and the ed psych he had at the time was worse than useless

Good luck with the meeting

ed psychs are NOT qualified to diagnose.

Who was the consultant? A paed? Their word carries far more weight, then climical psych then ed pscych.

cross posted

Not overtly surprised either I am sorry to say.

Slightly off tangent here but someone with clout knew of the ED Pysch my son saw in Preschool and this person was once asked her how many lives she had ruined!.

Ed Psych cannot diagnose such things. Idiot EP I notice has also suggested way of not using "negative parenting". Some are all too quick to blame the parents. Sounds also like she's been watching too much Supernanny. EP should not challenge what the cons has said because cons is more qualified.

The ed - psych who saw my dd1 last year told me I wasnt giving her enough hugs and cuddles wtf?

Surely the EP knows better than to label a child after only an hour with him?

And if there's one parent in this country who doesnt do "negative parenting" sometimes, Id like to meet them. Surely everyone would have ASD children if it was that easy to do?

I feel quite insulted but then I am taking it rather personally

It was a consultant paedatrician (sp?) we saw and I am told if a diagnosis is made it will be her that makes that ultimate decision.

Maybe I am being a bit sensitive?

How infuriating for you, why do Ed Psychs always seem to put a spanner in the works As with many others here, I too was strongly encouraged to go on a parenting course just before diagnosis when ds was turning 3, what a joke!!

Socci- that is shocking. I remember the thing about the coffee- but the passive thing is dreadful as well.

Don't worry about the edpsych- that makes you number 3 this week! (me, Jenk, and you)

One we have replaced the chap who saw ds1 (has a dx now osf as / hfa)- he suggested we lock sam in his room.

Says it all really!

This one said ds3's langauge problems due to his dummy and me not bf

He was BF, has no dummy and at no point did she bother to ask us ANYTHINg

I mean, anything!

The things she claims she saw DS3 do- well lets just say the nursery teacher who was thre mentioned she didnt witness any of them....

Just to add insult to injury....

ds3's senco at playgroup said she never thought it could be autism anyway and that it was a behavioural thing after all. She went on to say that ds is just being plain obstinate and choosing not to talk and kicking off when things don't go his way - behavioural, not autistic spectrum. We have allowed him to get away with too much apparently. Feel like telling these people to f*ck right off tbh.

oh dont get me started on SENCO,s.

Im actually going to start a thread on it cos i dont want to hijack yours.

at Socci's EP. I do home visits - it never occurs to me that there could be a problem if Im not offred a cup of coffee!

Dont drink tea or coffee, and if I did, and expected a cup at every visit, would end up spending a lot of time looking for a place to pee - do home visits in a rural area, sometimes a long drive to the next toilet!

Anyway, I dont drink them, so it never occurs to me to offer them to anyone else! My friends put the kettle on themselves when they come round.