social communication disorder (sorry long)

[allytjd]

Anyone else noticed that ED psych's are now using this term. My DS has not been oficially diagnosed with AS, it has always been left up to me and i had decided to leave it unless his progress plateaued or went backwards.

He was recently assesed by the ED Psych ( not had results yet) but she said that he presented as an ASD child but then proceededto say that he had a "social-communication disorder". This sounds to me as though they are trying to make his condition sound less serious to avoid spending too much money, am i right? Is it time for me to seek an official DX?

The situation is complicated by the fact that we live in a VERY small county with a poor choice of secondary education and if your child has a statement you CANNOT make a placing request to one of the much better schools in the next county. (Scottish law)

We all love where we live and would miss friends and country lifestyle if we move, we are seriously considering buying a second home in another town with good high school and coming "home" at weekends and holidays, basically the whole family becoming weekly
boarders at a state school. Are we nuts?

The excellent private school at the end of our street will not take "wonky" or average kids of course!

We are not rich by the way ,in case I loose sympathy, but was V. lucky with an inheritance and could just about manage a humble second home

How can you "present as an ASD child" but not be an ASD child??? I think you're right and I'd heard it before, that they are stopping short of giving ASD diagnoses but calling it something vague to avoid paying out. I would myself definitely move to keep my DS (ASD) away from a crap school, especially at secondary where kids can be cruel if you are different. However, you could go down the private diagnosis route and some paeds or Ed Psychs do private work, and if they are also NHS professionals it's difficult for the LEA to argue against their credentials. This is a cop-out by your Ed Psych, after all - autism is a social communication disorder so they are just playing with words to save you getting a right to out of county schools! You can look up the criteria for autism on-line and check list it yourself - I think it's the DSM guide, or something like that, and basically if you tick more than x boxes in each section, you're autistic. You could certainly use that to re-open the conversation with your Ed Psych ("according to my DSM check-list, DS fits all the internationally recognised criteria for a diagnosis of Autism, am I missing something or should I be seeking a legal opinion??!" Good luck: I find you have to be more cunning than a fox to work your way round the English SEN system, but had thought the Scottish system was better - clearly not!

I'm not very good on the minefield of schools and statementing but I agree with Amam about pursuing the diagnosis further, if necessary with a private paed or ed psych. I agree with you that the suggestion of SCD rather than ASD is very fishy.

Ancientmiddle-agedmum. I think the scottish system is generally better from what I have read but with one anomaly, you are barred from all out of county placements if your child has a statement of additional support needs, the money would not follow the child to the next county, you have to move even if your other kids are heart-broken and your AS child has to leave his only friend! This blanket ban will hopefully be challenged through the courts as it seems discriminatory to me. I suppose it is to stop sussed parents all trying to get their "expensive"kids into a school in one LEA.

I should say that there would not be a problem getting him DXed, it is me who has held back due his relative mildness and as i don't know what is in the Pysc's report yet I should not prejudge her (she is much better than the last one and her comment about him was an off the record one when I bumped into her, I think she would refer him for a Diagnosis with out a fuss if I asked). I am suspisious of the LEA not the Pysch IYKWIM.

I suppose I have been hoping he will improve enough by the time he goes to high school not to need a statement or a DX but I realise I shouldn't count on that and I have to work out what to do before his older bro goes to HS in 2 years.

Oh well who said life was meant to be easy! at least my kids are an interesting challenge and I wouldn't have discovered Mumsnet and all you wonderful women if I didn't have DS2 (who won a colouring comp at school today.

allytjd - my friend waited 9 months for her ds to be asessed as having "social communication disorder" Her mum thought it was a made up term ! I wasn't sure if this meant he was on the autistic spectrum or not - now reading your post it sounds a bit suspect. He is to have another appt in 8 months time- how often is your ds seen. sorry don't know much about this but feel that it sounds as you have to be very proactive or nothing happens and money is saved.
Good luck with your ds hope you get more knowledge advice

Also my friend is down south

It may be that your ed psych called it a social communication disorder because your DS does not yet have a diagnosis. Ed psych do not usually give medical diagnosis. This should be given by a doctor. She may just be saying (in a non-medical way) that his difficulties are primarily in the area of social communication. Sometimes, the term social communication difficulties is used when children have the social / communication problems similar to children with ASD but who do not have the obsessional behaviour.

If you feel your DS has ASD and that a diagnosis is important to ensure that he gets an appropriate school placement, then it might be a good idea to get him assessed by a doctor. You may find that once he has an official label, the Ed Psych would be more than happy to include this in her report.

thank you for your advice everyone but I think i gave the impression that i was a bit confused when I'm not really! I just thought it was interesting that this new definition was being bandied about all of a sudden and wondered if there was an ulterior motive at a high up level rather than at the level of individuals. We are three years into this as a family and I have read everything I can get my hands on and spoken to a lot of people, if I wanted an official DX I could get one fairly easily, CAMHS and the SALTS and the ED-psych have all offered to refer him but we have always held back as he is happy at the moment and progressing but we will continue to review this. The point I was trying to make is that a DX would not make any diff to the secondary school problem because there are NO suitable high schools in our county and children with statements are automatically barred from out of county placements (school places strictly based on postcodes up here in scotland but children without statements can request a place in a diff county at the discresion of the headteacher if there are spare places.)

I assumed it was just a blanket non-medical term that would include undiagnosed autistic traits, as Neolara said. Sounds to me like the professionals have to be careful how they describe kids with no DX so as not to offend parents. What terms would you expect them to use about your son for shorthand in their admin?