Is it common for a child with SN to be misdiagnosed?

[MamaCampbellBlack]

sorry if I'm being insensitive, but I was in Court this week in a case relating to a little girl with autism - some of the evidence related to her care when she was younger and her GM said "...that was when it was thought she had cerebral palsy..."

Is it common? I was quite surprised

It does happen. I think years ago cerebral palsy was given out as a diagnosis much quicker than today for any child that didn't fit the bill of 'typical child'. Particularly when you think that years ago, even less was known about genetic conditions and the autistic spectrum. I think generally, we think of medicine as a science; thus able to predict and get things right. My experience over the past few years makes me regard it as educated guesswork.

Think the truth is, even with all the medical specialists on board, they don't always know why a child is as they is. I think its about 40% of kids today with learning difficulties have no diagnosis.

blimey, 40% - so how is a parent/carer/teacher supposed to care for the child, learn as you go along?

oh so maybe the cp and autism weren't linked...I took her answer to mean she was diagnosed with CP but it turned out to be autism, I think I was probably wrong

some children with autism are very passive or have motor delays/severe dyspraxia. Those motor delays could be misdiagnosed as cp if it was being dxed early. Autism is often undiagnosed but the criteria for diagnosis are pretty strict, and if unsure paeds tend to hold off diagnosis.

Perhaps that's just a description that was given before assessment and diagnosis. Early in J's assessment we were given a provisional and verbal dx of AS, then following assessment this was rescinded as there wasn't enough evidence at that time. Later he did get full dx but for a while we were in limbo, and often found ourselves referring to 'the time when we thought he had AS'. So I can understand where the comment came from, it seems the girl was originally thought to have CP but later, after testing, she was found to have autism.

Thanks very much, I appreciate the info

fio -sorry if I was a bit insensitive with my comment about learning as you go along

ds2 is 4 & has CP & undiagnosed anxiety/compulsive type disorder (poss ASD). His CP was only formally diagnosed last year despite obvious concerns for a long while. DX was based on examination, Neuro response/reflex tests, physio report & clinical history.
After dx we were offered MRI which we declined (just didn't want to put him through it at that time).
We were told they held off on dx for so long as historically children were misdiagnosed with CP as other conditions can present similarly.
As the other replies have said they are also very reluctant to dx Autism.

Im so OLD I remember those days when we

Im so OLD I used to see CP kids without a scan!

One of the things Ive learnt as a therapist is you have to manage the presenting signs and symptoms, rather than worry about what label the child has - that can change as time goes on, and either the child changes, or knowledge increases and a more defining diagnosis can be made.

Years ago I worked in a specialist centre where children came in with unexplained symptoms, but still needed treatment while they were having tests and assessments to try to find out what was going on.

It seems to be more important to have a label these days, and I wonder if that has to do with things like DLA and statements where some places make these dependent on diagnosis.

In fact Im so old I cant post without cocking it up

It was very interesting - we had the girl's headmaster in Court (sn school) and he said he didn't care what diagnosis a child had, he didn't agree with labels, he and the staff dealt with each child as an individual based on their shared vast experience and learned what each child responded to. He was great, the happiness on his face when he described the first time she said "hello" and looked like she might have recognised him, things I take for granted.

It made me realise just how little I know - thanks very much for the replies.

Fubsy I think the dx is important for the reasons you mention. However its also important that therapists see beyond the label- ime most people with day to day hands on experience do, but many sit behind a desk dishing out programmes never getting hands dirty types don't. So I've been told things like "ds1 can't be doing x because he has a diagnosis of autism" having previously been told that he couldn't be autistic because he could do "x". In fact, he is autistic and he can do x (it's not a diagnosible feature).

Slightly different case, but I think it's also not unusual if your child has more than one condition to have an "emerging" diagnosis picture as they develop; to start with all symptoms will get blamed on the first thing they find, then as symptoms come along that don't fit that explanation, they look deeper....

It's a rule of diagnosis not to look for a more complicated explanation where a simpler one still fits the facts, which works well where you have only one thing going on. But where you have several, your first diagnosis can actually turn out to be the least of their problems and it can take a while to get to the real root of the problem.

So, although DD1's initial diagnosis is still technically correct, it is a bit of a red herring and for many months made it difficult to get help for her real problems.

actually you might be right fio- I know ds1 was refused SALT for example because of his autism. Also at his SLD school the lable is far less important than it was in mainstream as people just take him as he comes (at mainstream he needed the dx to access the support teams).