Pediatrician appointment in the new year, suspected autism. What were your experiences?

[Mrsremlab]

Hi everyone. After months of waiting we finally have some lift off. We have an appt to see a pediatrician who specialises in neuro disabilities in the middle of Jan. Its suspected that my son is autistic due to some warning signs (flapping, no speech, no pointing/waving/clapping, removal from social situations, doesn't respond to name etc), but every professional we have seen has also said his traits could simply be toddler behaviour and don't want to say for definite yet. In my mind, I have come to terms with the fact that he is more than likely on the spectrum.

What was your ped appt like? What should I expect? Did you receive a diagnosis? My son will be 21 months at the time of his appt. Thanks!

When dd and ds were diagnosed, the paediatrician appointment was pretty quick. He watched them playing and asked questions about behaviour in certain scenarios. Then sent a referral to Cadu for assessment which took another 6 months for that to start

Ds had all the same signs as your son but we were fobbed off with 'developmental delay' for several years and it would have been more years if we hadn't received a private diagnosis. Paed has since admitted when pressed that they suspected ASD all along but that they have to jump through hoops to make a diagnosis. I suspect that it varies by region.

DD first saw a peadiatrician at about 2 and we were seen every 6 months-ish until her diagnosis at 4. To begin with we were told the same as you: could be toddler traits - delayed in some areas but had good skills in others, etc. We were told at 3 that they thought she was probably autistic (or I think, precisely, that "autism was probably the reason for her challenges"), and the diagnosis itself didn't really change anything from that point, so we were happy with the timetable. To be honest I think it took me that long to get my head around it - I would have found it even more difficult to be told right away that she was definitely autistic when I didn't know anything about it yet and still had very negative stereotypes and a lot of misunderstanding. I'm also not sure I would have been ready to ask the right questions. You sound like you are a bit ahead of where I was in that respect as I was really in denial for a long long time!

Really glad you have an appointment, and hope you get some progress. Our appointments were generally with a pediatrician and a psychologist (often a student or trainee also) and one of them would play with DD (similar kinds of things to what they do in ADOS - having a tea party, playing with cause and effect toys, bubbles, etc.) while the other one talked to us about developmental history etc. They were interested in everything right back to birth so it's worth taking red book, any notes/diaries you have, any notes from nursery/childcare, etc. as it will all help build a picture.