We had our initial assessment of ds1 (5) recently - with consultant paed - and she said she would need to get a report from the ed psych and do a longer assessment with us without ds1, etc before considering an official diagnosis, but that she would send a letter to the school/ed psych/our gp first to enable ds1 to access help if the school feel they need it etc.
Our copy of that letter arrived a few days ago and we are trying to interpret it, read between the lines etc. I thought maybe more seasoned and battle-worn MNers might be able to help....
the first thing in the letter is
'Working Diagnosis: Higher Functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorder/assessment in progress'
then there's a long series of sections incorporating his history, things we said, things he did during the assessment etc, I can't bore you with it all, it's really long
Then:
'Summary: I have discussed with the Greensleeves that there are many aspects of the history that would suggest Shortsleeve could well be a child on the autistic spectrum but within the group that would come under the Asperger diagnosis. I have shared that we need to do a more detailed assessment before looking at a firm diagnosis and this will include an assessment by XXX XXXX (the ed psych) with observation of him at school and a more formal assessment with Mr and Mrs Greensleeves by myself without Shortsleeve.
I have recommended that during this assessment that the school support Shortsleeve as a child on the autistic spectrum so that ihs hearing sensitivity can be recognised, and what might be initially interpreted as bad behaviour could well be related to noise sensitivity or related to his difficulty with social interation or literal interpretation of language.
Mr and Mrs Greensleeves have been lent Tony Atwood's book about Aspergers by a friend and I have strongly recommended this to them. I have also recommended the National Autistic Society website for further information.'
I suppose what we are asking is a stupid idiotic question - because nobody can diagnose ds1 one way or the other from reading a few excerpts of a letter on an internet forum - but are we right in thinking it sounds quite likely that she will diagnose him eventually? She seemed very definite when we saw her, which surprised us, we were expecting a long drawn-out process with probably nothing at the end of it (it's not that we WANT him to have ASD, just that we want to know whether he does or not and what they are going to do about it, so we can get on with enjoying our ds....iyswim)