Seeing a Paed tommorow but are there diff ones

[alfiemama]

We are seeing a paed tommorow for my ds who is 4, we took him to the dr's for his feet as he seems veryflat footed and keeps falling at school.

Since being referred as you wil may recall the school have suggested Aspergers to us and we have all agreed that something is not quite right.

The school have told us to tell the paed about everything tommorow.

My question is are the different types of Paed or will this paed acknowledge all the info that we give him.

Hope that makes sense.

I have wrote a list of symptoms and traits that I am taking with me.

you give the paed all of the concerns that you have and they will refer you to different specialists as required. Good luck.

There are different types of paed and for developmental disorders like AS you really want a developmental paed but if its a community paed don't worry as they should refer you on.

If you can give examples of behaviour where your ds has shown AS traits that will be helpful. I always forget when i'm in there even though ds displays AS typical behaviours most days.

Good luck

Hi thanks everyone

I was hoping that was the case as another prong on the attack, so to speak.

Just thought if I go armed with info they may not fob me off as much as I know they will be busy.

thanks for the kind words, really scares me that we may have to wait years for a dx as its 2 years off my sons education.

lack of a dx shouldn't stop you from getting support though. Has he been seen by the TASS at school? If he is struggling at school, he should be assessed and at least put on an IEP.

Hi ChopsTheDuck

We have had a meeting with the school and SEN and they have refered him to a speach therapist and to be assessed but that was 2 weeks ago and not heard anything yet, she did say that the speach and therapist was due in to assess another child and would try and get her to assess my ds, but it has gone all quiet on that front.

As per my posting it is just a coincidence really that the gp has referred ds to paed as he thinks he is flat footed, however we (both school and I) that ds may have dyspraxia as well, as he cannot hold his pencil or fasten buttons and runs very toddlerish not to mention the constant falls he has.

Sorry Chops but what does TASS stand for, still not got my head around all of these abbreviations

teaching and support circumstances, they should be able to formulate and Individual learning plan (IEP) for your son.

My ds1 has dyspraxia, has physical problems liek you describe. It is hard to distinguish sometimes between dyspraxia and aspergers/autism in younger children. That is why we didn't get a dx until a lot later on. My son is now 6 and is it a lot more clearer that his social and emotional problems come from dyspraxia rather than an asd issue. At 4, it was really impossible to tell which he had. However, he still had the IEP right from starting school.

Thanks Chops (hope you dont mind me calling you this lol)

School have said they dont know why nursery havent picked up on it as it quite evident.
ds stims (hand flaps) along with the other traits, lines things up, echoes words back all the time, stacks, strange use of language, obsessions and rituals and has food issues. They said had nursery picked up his special needs would have been in place when he started school and needed it the most.

As this was our first, we had nothing to compare it to, he was always a hard child but just battled on, sort of grew accustomed to the odd ramblings and obsessions, I suppose we turned a blind eye, maybe a bit of denial, quite sad really, anyway I digress.

I feel I have let ds down and now want to work hard to get the help that he deserves, he is struggling at school and I feel he maybe asked to repeat reception.

First things first - you have not let your ds down!!! If anyone has its his nursery for not picking up on the traits. Even if you had other children to compare him to it doesn't mean you'd have realised that these behaviours were associated with SN - all children are different anyway and plenty have their own funny ways.

Its early days to be talking about repeating reception and form what you've said the school sound on the ball so hopefully they are already supporting your ds but are seeking further support and guidance. If you are in England then its quite rare for a child to be educated outside of their natural year group. Even if he does repeat this is not the end of the world - we had to backyear ds when he first started school and it turned out to be the best thing for him. He went up to his natural year group last year at 7.

Hi Dustystar

Thanks for the kind words, I know I think I am just having colly wobbles about tommorow, when you sit there and right down all the traits (3 pages full) it makes you think, god are will just daft not to have picked up on this sooner.

Well heres to the first step on the ladder tommorow, onwards and upwards

If its any consolation you are far from the only parents not to have picked up on it.

My ds is 8 and was dx with AS and ADHD this august. When he first started school at just 4 we had no idea that there was anything 'wrong'. He had always been very lively and challenging but we felt that his behaviour fell within the normal range IYKWIM. His preschool had chatted to me about his behaviour but they weren't overly concerned either and just felt he was a very lively boy. When he started school all hell broke loose and he had his first exclusion within 5 weeks Even then i didn't realise what the problem was and it took lots of reading and observation over the following months before I realised he was on the autistic spectrum.

We missed all the traits in spite of my being educated in child development to masters level and having experience with both adults and children with a variety of SN plus my mum is a SENCO Looking back the pattern is clear but at the time we simply didn't see it.

The paed will do the referrals to the relevant specialists.

DS1 has AS/dyspraxia and the paed referred him to a clinical psych, SALT, OT and he had his hearing tested (for the SALT I think). Then they were all supposed to get together and give a diagnosis.

Good idea to do a list of traits - you won't remember most of them when you are there. I also added things that I thought DS did well or were normal. The paed found that helpful too.

Good luck.

Don't blame yourself. I did fight from a very early age to get some recognition of my son's problems and it got me or him nowhere! Even the nursery jsut thought he was 'slow' (their word NOT mine).

I think it is hard to recognise these things, and it is what help he gets now that is the most important. I think as a parent you adapt to whatever quirks your children have. I've spent the last fortnight fillign in a dla form and it is heartbreaking having to list all the things that does make ds1 different and I jsut accept as being part of him!

BTW, I'd ask the paed for a physio referral for an assessment of motor issues.

Hi everyone

Sorry got a call from school to say ds fell again, no exageration this is the 7th time since Sept, so had to take him to A & E hes ok just shaken up and keep eye out for concussion as big egg head.

Will defo ask for referral though chopsTheDuck for motor issues, he never seems to land on his knees like most kids always his blumming head

aww poor boy, hope he is feeling better now.

ds topples like a tree, he can't motor plan quick enough to put his hands out to stop himself. I get those little slips home at least once a week

Have you looked at the dyspraxia foundation website here
I think it would be worth you having a read through.

Thanks Chops for the site, ds is showing lots of those traits, so I am convinced he has this. Here are a few on the list that I will be showing the paed

As a baby he never fed properly
only walked after bottom shuffling at 18 months
Hand flaps quite a lot
cant hold a pencil, press on enough to make a mark, or hold knife and fork properly
runs oddly almost toddler like and flaps his hands
rocks back and forth
dont think he will ever ride a bike
doesnt play with toys like they should be played with, looks where the batteries go instead
talks in a sing song high pitched voice
echoes words
small things seem like the end of the world to him
has rituals and gets obsessed about them
only seems to eat beige food
likes adult programmes ie dragons den rather than childrens programmes
watches dvd's over and over again
gets cramp a lot (not sure if connected at all but have read asd can be lacking in minerals?
reads yellow pages and catalogues
stacks and lines up toys
agression
hits himself when annoyed
has to have music on in car
makes up words and uses correct words in wrong context.

There are many more but just would be too long on here

Good luck with the paed today

thanks Dustystar

Ok back from the paed, mixed emotions really.

Firstly the paed was for foot and ankle only, told him our concerns and that since his referal for flat footed we thought could be dyspraxia, gave him my list which he read (thank god)

He examined his feet and ankles and said could be normal flat footednes, I said I was concerned about the falls and not just a clumsy child, so he referred him for a second opinion but doesnt think this is why he is falling over and that we should go back to the Dr about our concerns as more likely to be this.

Think I was maybe expecting him to refer us

I think you need to see your gp and ask for a referral to a community or developemental paediatrician. I'm rather surprised tbht hat they managed to find a paed that specialised solely in foot and leg problems!

Sorry to hear you didn't get very far

thanks Chops I know, I asked him was there lots of diff paeds and he said about the community paed and the Dr would have more clout than him.

I suppose its another box ticked, and we have to go through the process, its just whilst all this is going on, its only a matter before ds really hurts himself.

the thing is though, gettign a dx or even therapy isn't going to change anything overnight. Whatever problems he has aren't going to dissappear. You say that it is only a matter of time before he really hurts himself, then that needs to be dealt with now.

The school can get things moving a lot quicker, and bring in education plans immediately. You can lialise witht he senco to make sure that he is safer at school.

For example, ds1 has to have a chair to sit on at carpet time. Otherwise he leans on other children or the radiator (and burns himself), because he needs to feel groudned against something to stay still.
In the playground he needs extra supervision, because he falls over all the time and is at extra risk of being bullied.
On a school trip he gets 1:1 because he might run off on a frolic and he won't think to come back or ask for help. He can't be trusted near traffic.
He needs someone to keep track of his toilet visits, because otherwise he would spend 90% of the school day sitting in there, staring into space.

I think you need to do risk assessments with the school. It's jsut not acceptable to go on waiting for other intervention. You have to bear in mind that unless you can afford to go private these things take months of waiting in any case. We waited a year for physio, a year for occupational assessment and are still waiting (6 months and counting) for therapy.

i'm sorry if I sound harsh.

I know what it's like when you are focused on trying to get at why and the cause of the problems.

We're lucky to have an excellent paed, who doesnt like to label anything much. I found this very frustrating at first, but she focuses on meeting needs, which is what is really important.

Chops you dont sound harsh at all, you are bang on, I am going to ring the school today and explain that this needs addressing now and can someone stay with him at playtime, I am a nervous wreck, as I am sure anyone would be.

I have made an appointment for Drs so that he can refer us, to me now its not a matter of has he got it I am pretty damn sure he has but how like you said we can help him.

Your advice is very welcome though anytime and very appreciated

Sorry to hear that you didn't get much joy out the paed. The whole process is frustratingly slow.

Since I last posted I notice you have posted a list of traits your DS has. He sounds very like my DS - not exactly the same but the same sort of mix of dyspraxia and AS. We ended up with a dx of AS but I am not happy about it as it doesn't seem a real reflection of how he is since so much of what is wrong is dyspraxia related.

Anyway, there is a large overlap between these conditions so in a sense it doesn't matter and a label doesn't really change how your DS or mine are.

I definitely agree that you need to see your GP to get a referral for a community paed but I think the school should be doing more. We didn't have a dx for DS before the school was helping and he has had an IEP from day one too. Does your DS have one of those? There are things the school can be helping with that aren't reliant on a dx.

Is he on the SN register as well?

Sorry you are going through this. It is horrible and long winded and stressful but you will get there in the end.