Multi disciplinary Assessment

[Stacey4]

Hi my son is almost 3 years old as is on the early support pathway and at our taf meeting at the end of November it was agreed that he should have the MDA. However it has taken till today for them to confirm that he has now been added to the list and once he is near the top of the list they will be I touch to make appointment. I was wondering how long anyone had to wait to get the assessment once they were added to the waiting list. Many thanks

My ds was accepted onto our early help team in early September 2017. We had an assessment at the child development centre in December 2017 and were told the diagnosis of ASD at the end of that appointment, so for us it was pretty quick.

Thank you for your reply. He has been on early support for coming up to one year. He had a general development assessment last June but at that time they were on the fence as to whether DS need mda at that time. Since then it has been decided he does need mda because of his development/behaviour. Hope he gets his assessment soon.

[Edited by MNHQ to remove names]

My ds was a bit older than yours, almost 4 at diagnosis, I think his ASD behaviours have become more obvious as he’s got older and grown out of toddlerhood. I hope you get your assessment soon.

Btw OP, I would report your post and get your ds’s name removed.

Please can anyone also advise what happens at the assessment. Many thanks

openupmyeagereyes where does it show his name please?

Oh yes I see it now thank you.

Our was a very detailed developmental history and a play based evaluation. These were carried out by a developmental paediatrician and a speech & language therapist.

We had this in November, it involved a specialist nursery nurse from the childhood development team carrying out an observation at home and at nursery, the actual ADOS test carried out by a SALT, then a meeting with the team, so consultant paed, his student, nursery, SALT and parents - DS was observed playing with the specialist nursery nurse at several different activities by the team, they were particularly interested in his pretend play (or lack of) - then paed took me to one side for a chat, then we waited outside whilst they jointly came to a conclusion - but i suspect the consultant had the final say.

In our case it was felt to be a speech and language delay rather than disorderl

Here the wait can be a year but was less so in our case,

I think it took about 6 months, our child was under two when we raised concerns. The younger a child is the less likely it is they will have their assessment straight away, because they are still developing, professionals tend to think things might still 'turn around'. At our child's assessment which took place at the hospital, there were three people, just observing our boy doing simple tasks. There was a specialised nurse, a occupational therapist and someone else that I can't remember (forgive me, it was a long time ago!). The good news is, the earlier you raise concerns, the earlier you can get a handle on things, we were told that not many parents raise concerns as early as we did, so good on you that you did get on it so soon. Our boy was diagnosed with ASD, the assessment helped a great deal in the sense we got useful advice and access to helpful services. Good luck and try not to worry, take things one day at the time!