Possible early ados

[Mykiddies20132010]

Has anyone been called in for an early ados? My dd is 7 and we have many problems sleep and melatonin is not working aggression (severe) and spd. She ticks a lot of the boxes for Asperger’s.
We had a commutation assessment with a salt. At the end of our appointment she had a couple things she picked out and said she will do the report and also said if there’s enough evidence her pead may call her in for early ados. But also reminded asd is very hard to diagnose in girls. (This is all I hear and I do appreciate it’s not as straight forward but I think she’s more obvious then most) I just hope now that this is the case as we will stay on the list till late next summer. I just wish they didn’t say this just in case it doesn’t happen. It builds your hopes up, that we could get answers sooner. And if we don’t it’s just disappointment. I’m struggling to cope with dd. So disappointed that the melatonin didn’t work. Is there anything else they can use?

Thanks in advance just feel nothings working atm xx

What do you mean by 'early ADOS'?

Do you mean the SALT has gathered quite a lot of evidence and thinks your dd is a clear case and could be diagnosed quickly without jumping through all the hoops, or that there's a list for cancellations or something?

Autism is generally only hard to diagnose in girls when the clinicians don't have the experience or fail to keep up with current research etc.

There's a CBT workbook called 'What to do when you dread your bed' by Dawn Huebner which might be worth trying for sleep.

Hi hard as snails.

No not a cancellation, the pead said a salt assessment could hurry the process so we saw her with 5 days of being refered!! Super speedy! And I didn’t realise it could be for a early ados the salt just said that. So is it possible salt and pead are both thinking she’s more clear cut?

Thanks for the recommendation anything’s with a shot even doubling dose not worked at all tbh it’s probley made her worse. She is up at 2 every day and needs the melatonin to fall asleep the next night still just lost tbh but thank you for your quick reply x

Melatonin works best at lower doses, if it doesn't work the advice is supposed to be to reduce the dose not increase it. Optimum dose is usually under 1mg but it's often prescribed way too high.

Yeah her pead said she will start at 2mg my daughter is very heavy for her age. And if it doesn’t work will only increase one more time because if it’s not worked by then it probably won’t work at all. Tbh I don’t think it will work I just persevered for 7-8 weeks beacause I was praying it would kick in. But there’s no point medicating if it’s not working.

Do you think the salt could be preparing me for an early assessment then? Thanks for you help!

Optimal dose for adults was found to be 0.3mg...

It does sound like the SALT is thinking she's fairly clear cut and needs assessing ASAP. You can always contact and ask for clarification.

Thanks you gosh that is a low amount!

Yes I called this morning to say I sort of gone up with melatonin now, and said to pead admin the salt mentioned that and she said she will try and get the pead to read report and answer that one. I pray it’s an early ados we need help and family need to understand her condition ect.

Sort of given up*

Just an update received salt report sounds like she picked up on a lot by the looks of things also spoke with pead she’s doing a visit to the school in a months time and is hopefully scheduling ados early in the new year, instead of late summer! I was told she will be performing it on her own and not with different peads.
As far as melatonin there’s not a lot we can do I said I feel as if it’s not really working for her I will continue to the end of month and review myself weather to continue

Excellent news on assessment

Thanks snail it is great news. Sorry but was wondering if you maybe able to explain inferential ability is please? Something that was picked up on, Thank you. Have googled but could fine an exact meaning.

I'm guessing it means ability to infer, things like working out why a character in a book or person in real life might do something when it's not explained. Something us autistic people can struggle with is reading non-verbal cues so we can miss a lot unless it's explicitly told to us.

If you read around non-verbal communication and higher order language skills it might shed some light.

Brilliant thank you very much for your help! yes in the report it recalls the pictures and she could only say what she saw couldn’t understand why some one would wear jumpers shorts ect. Only name what they wear ect. It’s good actually finding out things she struggles with sometimes you don’t realise how much she’s affected. If only I could see the world as she does just for a day appreciate your help snail