My friend thinks her ds may have aspergers ..who is best person to see?

[brimfull]

he is6 in yr 2,august born

she has felt there is something 'not quite right' for a while now
she has googled and he has many of the markers
school have said he is 2 yrs behind but just recently he is starting to pick up a bit

she is worried now becasue he has become unhappier with school,groups like swimming lessons,recorder etc.
He is v shy .

One of the marked things that she keeps telling me is that he has no recall for things like knowing when his birthday is,days of the week,adding 2+2 little things that his 4 yr old brother does .

School not said much really,she has been to GP to ask for referral to ed psych.

ANything else she should do or know?

If she has any concerns about his language/use of language (e.g. even if his vocab seems OK, he has problems conversing) worth her looking for a speech therapy referral. Best person to diagnose is a developmental paediatrician. The ed psych referral is still useful in terms of working with the school to see how to support his learning.

his language is fine infact quite advanced vocab

gp is referring to paediatric team first I think before ed psyhc

My five year old diagnosed yesterday by a paediatrician at local hospital after referral from the GP at my request.

my dd1 (8) has just been diagnosed. For a short term answer you can approach a private psychologist (preferably one that can do educational AND clinical) BUT ONLY a paediatrician in this country is allowed to diagnose/label a child etc. They normally have a team of people (in particular speech and language) that will assess him through various tests and then this will be added to the paediatricians thoughts, those of the school and possible of the Educational Psychologist attached to the schools in the area.

I agree with TC that an educational Psych is useful. We went to private one because we were desperate to know what was wrong with dd1 and why she was soooo depressed. It was at that point that we first encountered the words ASD and Aspergers as we'd never heard of it. By pure luck we'd gone to a psychologist that the paediatrician, that we were reffered to by the gp, respected and he didn't demand to many tests himself but sent us straight into SALT (Speech and Language therapy). Also we changed her school at the same time as they denined that there was any problem (despite her having refused school and been on junior antidepressants). Again the paed started to read the report from the first school and throw it away, in front of us, in disgust. Yet even with all of this - its still taken almost a year and although we known verbally the results we've yet to see his report in paper.

Its long, its frustrating and the best thing to do is to get as much help as possible if she truely believes that her son is aspergic. For us it was like reading a full description of our eldest - it was quite shocking - right down to the fact that she has major problems with her socks .

BUT - dd1's language is and has always been EXTREMELY ADVANCED and she uses it to full dramatic effect on every single possible moment. Watch this space! She's gonna win an oscar or bafta at some point in the near future!

Meant to add... Its not their spoken language ability that is assessed, it is their understanding of what is being said. For instance dd1 is just about 9 (2 weeks) and in tops sets for eng and maths. She's just finished reading the final Harry Potter for the second time and is eagerly awaiting InkSpell to arrive in the post (for her birthday). BUT the other day when I said that we were going to fly home grab some stuff and fly over to some friends. She pointed out that we didn't own a plane and therefore we couldn't fly. Also she has an obsession with horses and when a friend of my 5 year old daughter asked what she could buy dd1 for her birthday she very earnestly asked whether she could buy a horse. The 5 year old blinked and then came and talked to me instead.

does he have an obsession and by obsession its all they think about. If not he may be ASD or atypical autistic rather than aspergic. Its all very closely linked and similar.

thansk for your replies
sounds like my friend is on the right track anyway
as for obsessions,his mum says he goes though phases of being obsessed with things like star wars/dr who etc.which seems quite normal but he is quite relentless about them at the time and she finds it very wearing
I think the fact that he is becoming unhappier is what is the most worrying.
What would a diagnosis do for him?