Awaiting Diagnosis For Daughter

[LaUrDuD1108]

Hi everyone,

I am very new to Mumsnet a so bare with me. My daughter who is 5 years old has been waiting to be tested for autism for over two years finally we have the appointment to see the paediatrician on the 7th of Jan. My question is what to expect and if there's any shared experiences you all have would be a great help to me? She has already had SALT (Speak and language therapist) assessment who referred her to the paediatrician. Thank you

Hi, my 4.5 DD is at the next stage of the process you describe. Had 1st appt, then paediatrician, now waiting for third and final appt. The paediatrician appt involved taking history from pregnancy onwards, development progress and any delays, habits, difficulties, social behaviour, school behaviour and difficulties too. She (Paed) also did a few practical tasks/tests but very informal. Took a couple of hours, though on arrival she said we’d be an hour only. Very helpfully, the Paed advises everything else could be ruled out bar autism; this means the wait til the next appt is easier now as I can fine tune my approach to DD! Hope this helps; know it’s daft saying it but try not to worry too much! I read elsewhere on MN about other ppl experiences and the consistent advice was to not worry about your DD having a “good day”. I tried to follow this advice and at the appt was having huge doubts that the Paed would see any issues as DD was chatty and engaging in everything BUT other ppl posts are right : the trained eye knows just what to look for and knows exactly how to steer activities and push the DC gently to gauge responses and levels of coping. Good luck!

@FurryCat1978 thank you so much for your advice has massively put me at ease! Hope all is well with you are your family

Hope your appointment went well OP 💐

How did it go @LaUrDuD1108? My DD is austistic and is 5 too, but we were "in the system" since she was 2 and she was Dxed around her 4th birthday, so it was a bit more of a gradual process for us.

Hope it went OK and you are feeling OK about whatever the outcome was.