Is DS likely to get any tentative sort of diagnosis after first joint clinic appointment?

[TotalChaos]

DS should be seen by joint clinic next month. Is the paed likely to diagnose ASD at that appointment (or strongly hint at it), or is it likely to be a few months down the line?

It's possible. When Ds1 was referred and first saw the paediatrician, after the first appointment she was saying that she believed he was on the spectrum, but she couldn't diagnose him herself and he'd need to be assessed by a multidisciplinary team.

Our experience was similar to Bullet's with our ds1. We had the appointment and then at the end the Paed asked what we thought the problem was. We said we suspected autism and she said that she agreed with us but wouldn't be able to say for sure until he'd had a full assessment.

Fingers crossed for you that they give you some answers. xx

I would suggest you try and get an indication. My experience is that they are ( probably understandably) reluctatnt to diagnose. We couldn't get anything out of anyone and even after the multi-disciplinary assessment they still all tried to nod and chew their pen tops and shuffle out of the room. My husband had to grab the consultant and ask flat out.
If you assure them that you understand they cannot be definitive but you are just looking for their initial view in order that you can start sourcing your own info/support then you may get them to be more frank.

The truth is that they still tend to appraoch this converastion on the basis that you may throw yourself to the floor shrieking like a banshee - try and appear calm ( even f you don't feel it. I certainly didn't)

thanks all. you are right Pagwatch, there is no point prolonging the pre-diagnosis phase by me being shy/in denial.

hello TC, we seem to be in similar situaton waiting for dx...

ds had an "asd traits " comment from Consultant Paed, last year, play based assessment(where I did have some feedback, but no dx) ... and now we have on Monday our first meeting with the multi-disciplinary team - still no diagnosis, but dh and I have shown serious signs of being in denial... although I have asked SALT (who is our team co-ordinator) about getting an ados test or whatever it is they will use for diagnostic purposes...

tomorrow the SALT is coming to discuss the multi-disciplinary team meeting that is on the 17th ... I will know more then about our next steps, from what I can gather we won't get a dx until after the child psychiatrist appointment (when will that be? - how long is a piece of string?), which we have been waiting so long for I keep worrying I might have missed it... it got lost in the post etc.

the consultant paed seemed to want to wait until after our ds turned 4,( maybe to see how well his language had developed?) before dx...?

talk about floundering in the dark....

hth

TC was just wandering same thing myself how long woul dit be as you know waiting for ds MDA assessment and was also wandering would we find out on the day or how long after good luck to all aefondkiss thanks for your help also on my thread

we all seem to be at exactly the same stage so whoever gets seen first please pass on info so i know what to expect thanks guys xx