Asd paediatric assessment - what to expect

[CurcubitaPepo]

Ds9 has his first paediatric consultants appointment on the 19th of Dec. He is suspected of having HFA.

What are people’s experiences of these appointments? What information do I need to gather?

Thanks in advance

Hi

My DS is just turning 3 and has recently had a developmental paed appointment as a result of speech and social / communication issues. Dr spent a lot of time talking to me and time observing / interacting with my DS. I imagine this might be different for you as your DS is much older. She made copious notes. Just DS, her and me in the room.

Dr was able to 'informally' diagnose ASD at the end of the 90 minute appointment; we are awaiting an upcoming SALT report to enable a formal diagnosis. I received the written report today (three weeks - very impressive) which was copied to preschool, SALT etc.

It was quite a daunting time for me, but ultimately extremely useful as the diagnosis will open so many doors for DS.

Hope that is somewhat useful for you. They should explain at the start what will happen, but make sure you ask if you are unsure or have questions. I really hope it goes well for you all.

It might be worth calling the Paediatrician's secretary to check. I have done this a couple of times and they always seem happy to help. One time the Paediatrician herself gave me a quick call back to explain which was useful and helped me prepare DD.

I think with ASC they are always very focused on early years stuff, so it would be worth bringing his Red Book if you still have it and any baby books or information on early development. Before going to DD's assessment I looked through some old photos from the ages 0-3 just to remind me of certain events and ages that she did certain things. Also e-mails/notes from meetings with nursery, pre-school, etc. Basically anything that could remind you about early years will probably be helpful.

But given that's potentially quite a lot of work, worth phoning to check if that is actually useful to them!

My DS has just turned 3, currently on the waiting list for assessment with the child development team. I felt quite teary reading your posts, unsure why, I've never searched on Mumsnet for a post relating to my situation, long day and caught unawares I guess!

Deep down I know an ASD diagnosis will be given for my little one. I'd be keen to find out how you get on at your appointment.

Thank you for the prep advice, whilst on this never ending waiting list I can use the time to gather milestone dates.

Hope all goes well.

Thanks everyone, I’ll try to remember his red book. I think I’ll try to write down a statement about his behaviour at every age range. The senco is coming with me, but she’s been off sick this week.

I’m unsure at the mo whether I think he has it or not. I’ve gone through phases where I’ve been convinced he does, but recently he’s been coping so much better. School suggested perusing a diagnosis as he was struggling to cope with new situations.

He’s always been very stubborn and strong willed, even as a tiny baby baby. His behaviour has a strong flavour of ODD about it.

Thanks everyone for their input.

DD has a diagnosis (with no pushing from us, and not even really borderline on the ADOS) and I'm still not always convinced she actually is autistic. I think partly because the things she struggled with are things I found hard as a child too, so I probably don't see it as so extreme... but turns out things I always thought were normal are probably not! At the same time all autistic behaviour is just human behaviour, and autistic sensory issues are human sensory issues, but a bit more so, so maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that everything feels so familiar.

It's funny before Dx it seems like the biggest thing but afterwards I mainly felt relief that we didn't have to go to any more assessments. It's been useful for helping us think about how to help support DD and why she finds certain things difficult, but otherwise hasn't been as big of a deal as I thought it would be (it's a total cliche but obviously they are the same person after Dx as before).