What to ask paediatrician?

[northernlites]

My DS after waiting 18 months finally has an appt with a child development paediatrician.
We think he has dyspraxia, dysgraphia and possibly sensory issues.
I will take reports I have from ed psych., school, physio & occ. therapy.
What advice can any of you give me?
What would you ask?
I want to make the most of this appointment seeing as it's taken so long to get here.
Thanks

Bump

We've been on a waiting list for 10 months for my now 3 yo to be seen -2 months to go so following this see if anyone replies 😬
Sorry I couldn't help and good luck x

Thanks for your reply, the appt is this morning, so I will just have to wing it and use intuition!
Good luck to you too
The waiting is awful isn't it?

Yes so frustrating 😔

My lo doesn't talk-he says lots of words but no conversation , and little joint attention -he's a runner too 😬

Let me know how you get on if you don't mind because I'd be interested to know what they ask. There's been so much speculation around what's up

I think I would just prepare by jotting down things like the age he was when he met key milestones and any health problems as they will probably take a history. Also try and summarise (and prioritise) what your key concerns re your son are (at recent appointment with clinical psychologist I was asked for my top 3 - I struggled to narrow it down to 3!)

I guess the key thing is at the end of the appointment you want to have a clear overview of what is going to happen next, timescales for further assesments etc.

I've had a speech therapist that's met him twice now say to me the second time we saw her that she thinks he's autistic. I've read a couple of books trying to prepare myself and to be honest I'm not reading about my child. This speech therapist will be on the assessment team and I'm worried now that he'll be labelled unnecessarily-there's definitely something up for him to not be talking at 3.5 but he doesn't have any of the main red flags talked about in the books I've read. There's so many complex things it could be, that's why I'm interested to see how Op got on and how thorough and in depth the assessment is . 😬

I'm going to take your advise dimples and start writing hints down x

I see the appointment has already gone now, but for anyone else in the same position, or for any future appointments, I would keep a diary beforehand (from the day of getting the appointment letter to the day of the appointment) to record unusual behaviours/concerns etc as they happen on a day to day basis.

I would also jot down any questions that come into your head straight away, so you remember to ask them, and you are fully prepared for the meeting.

Thank you for your replies.
It went pretty well. The Dr has diaganosed Dyspraxia + sensory issues, definitely no ASD.
She took a very thorough medical history physical and mental and all learning issues.
Physical examination too
She had occ. therapy and physio reports. I took photocopies of ed. Psych and mental health reports and letters.
We had a long discussion about all DS struggles with physically and educationally, sensory, emotionally.
Plan is to see her again in about 4 months after been a term in new school year as hopefully they will have implemented some better support.
She is chasing up hearing review as he struggles with noise
She is referring him to child psychology due to anxiety he has.
He has already had OT and physio but she may refer him again later
It felt like a positive outcome, just hope the school plays ball now
And I need to figure out what I do next eg, DLA or EHCP

Apply for DLA straight away. Cerebra have a good pdf guide to help filling the form for invisible disabilities. Call up for the form and a paper copy with a date stamp will be mailed to you. If you return it before 6 weeks after that date you’ll have the DLA backdated to that date.

With EHCP if your school isn’t keen to apply you can diy. Get on the IPSEA Foundation Law course and google SEN Jungle’s 7 Steps to EHCP Success for guidance on what you’ll need to do. Consider applying a few weeks before Xmas as it seems to be a really quiet time so the LA might be more likely to assess as they have more capacity. Sad but true but it (accidentally) worked for us!!

Thanks @tartanterror that's really great advice , I had no idea until last night that he was potentially entitled to DLA, and when I think about how much I do for him compared to his sister it really adds up.
When school goes back in a couple of weeks I will talk to SENCO about EHCP and see how the land lies, see if they are going to be supportive, if not I will try going it alone,
It will probably take me til Christmas to complete all the paperwork involved 😂

You’ll probably need to be on a mission to do it by Xmas! It took me 4 months to work out how the law works and how to make my case. Good luck