School are saying ds8 may not be 'autistic enough' any experiences?

[Loobieloo27]

Hi my DS is 8yo and from around 5 he has appeared to have certain ways that may not be NT. For example he has certain obsessions and anxieties, it used to be fire, now its the weather, he gets very upset about heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Academically and socially he is does well, excels in math, struggles in English slightly but manages. Has friends but is very demanding/bossy only plays by his rules. Can never be wrong and conversations are very one-sided.

School have been of the opinion to watch and wait, the SENCO assessed him and said he has asd tendencies but not enough for a diagnosis.

Now what? Any experiences, thank you.

SENCO's are not qualified to make or dismiss an ASC diagnosis (for my ds's it involved a multidisciplinary team involving CAMHS, Community Paediatrician, Education Psychologist and SALT). As you have concern you could go to your GP and ask for assessment via that route.

The SENCO is not remotely qualified to assess for autism. I agree though that there are enough red flags to warrant asking the GP to refer for investigation.

That's not the Senco's job, they have no remit to assess for possible diagnosis. In fact anyone who says things like "autistic enough" knows feck all about ASC.

Speak to your GP about your concems and get him seen by experts who know what they're actually looking for.

"Autistic enough" ranks up there with the other common phrase parents of children with autism often encounter - "he/she doesn't look autistic."

Go speak to gp and go via nhs. He may not have strong enough traits for school intervention esp if he is doing ok academically.

My Dd struggles a bit more socially than you describe, but other than that similar-ish. We have just recently been referred to neurodiversity after school came back to me and said "we think she's struggling socially and doesn't like imaginary games" as though they had just thought of it 🙄. You may need to just keep suggesting or go via GP/CAMHS (if you can get access to them), I've also had to pay for some private assessments e.g. occupational therapist assessment to get school to address sensory needs at all. It's a slow process, unfortunately, but hang in there!

I would put things in motion to get him assessed. In most areas there is a wait so it might take a year or more. It can also take another age to get assessed for an ehcp.
My son’s issues only started showing up at about that age and it meant that the ehcp was in place by the time he moved to secondary.

How did you get on? I am late to the thread as new to mumsnet but wanted to add if helpful - my DD has high functioning ASD and academics were never a problem earlier in primary school. In a way sounds similar to your DS. We had similar experience and I didn’t act for a few years.

However as she got older and the social side of things got harder at school and the demands in terms of self organising on etc, her academics really started to suffer. Her mental health suffered and it was severe anxiety got to to CAMHS who then diagnosed ASD. Sadly things are unrecognisable from the way she was age 8.
The challenge is the school environment got so hard that it meant she was unable to learn.
I would urge you to not let strong academics hold you back from getting assessment.
Too often I read how things get worse in school as they get older and having support in place to make this as easy as possible/ minimise the strain on them can make a significant difference.

Hugs x

In fairness, my DD's SENCO is brilliant, but I just wanted to say that it makes my blood boil when I read/hear things such as 'he has asd tendencies but not enough for a diagnosis'.

The SENCO saying that, like fact, is disgraceful. Because unless he or she has a qualification in the field (an even then, diagnosis is usually multidisciplinary,) they shouldn't be giving there opinion as fact.

Wow I’m disgusted and angered to read this. Isn’t the world supposed to be making progress with supporting people with special needs? I can understand that it may be difficult to make a formal diagnosis but ‘not enough’ for one and after ‘tendencies’ have been identified. So does this mean that he falls short somehow (point score maybe) of the diagnostic system they are using? Madness. I would keep pressing, fighting and hounding them - that’s not good enough. Don’t stop until you get what you need for your son.

@Loobieloo27 just reading your post again I can’t help but think he sounds very much like my eldest son at that age. My eldest has Aspergers, things are slightly different with him now but at that age the social side / peer interaction was very similar, also anxious and worried about lots of things. He is now 15 but is still afraid of the dark and certain other things. I’m not saying your son is but worth a read up.
All the best