I have a multie disaplinary meeting about my daughter soon, what can I expect ??

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my daughter has had a 6 day acessment at an NHS centre because she has speech and launguale difficulties and some delayed development.
We have a meeting on wednesday with everyone who acessed her including her school teacher, speech therapist ect.
I just wondered what to expect really. I'm feeling a bit nervous to be honest. I want it to go well, but I'm not sure what I'm going to hear or what a good outcome would be.

Well supposing the format is similar there to how it was at my dd Lucy's MDA.
All professionals involved and parents gather together and discuss the assessment results.
If the results of the assessments have led to a diagnosis then the paed is likely to tell parents at the MDA and follow it up with a letter hand delivered by a person who regularly sees dd.
Diagnosis or not there will be discussion as to what further help dd needs and how these needs will be addressed and any support you may need.
At dd's MDA we were given Lucy's autism diagnosis, made plans to begin the statementing process, paed filled in report for DLA and he offered a referral to SS children with disabilities team (I declined)
It is a good opportunity when everyone is gathered together to ask any questions you may have so if you have any write them down now and take them with you because most likely your mind will go blank.
Good Luck hope it goes well and you get some answers.
Have the professionals given any clues as to what they are looking for or what they have found? Usually anything you learn won't be a surprise just formalising the findings really.

Ours were similar to the one asdx2 describes.

Everyone involved in the assessment process was invited. Everyone took turns in introducing themselves and sharing their own indings with the rest of the group. The results were discussed. At the end the Paed gave their verdict of what they thought the problem was and what should happen next.

It sounds very formal but ours were actually fairly relaxed and everyone involved was very nice.

Good luck with your meeting.

Thank you. That sounds fine. The only thing I'm concerned about is different people not being able to agree. Eg, the speech therapist who my daughter see's every week has said her language and understanding are fine for her age and it's just pronounciation. The Speech therapists at the acessment centre have said she's 18 months behind on her language and understanding of language. The school think she's making good progress and is confident that it's just her speech and that she'll be fine.
I'm just not sure anymore. I used to think it was only pronounciation of speech, but when I compare her to other children of the same age and younger, I think I've been kidding myself. She is still soiling herself very regularly, and seems to act alot younger than she is. She gets on very well with 3 year olds rather than her own age group of nearly 5. Children of her own age tend to "baby" her even though she's not small for her age.
I hope that everyone can agree on what the problem is so that we can work on improving things.

This is one of those times when having so many people in the room is an advantage as everyone joins in with their own opinions.

They will have their own evidence in front of them and use that to show how they've reached their conclusions. The others might say something like "Well actually I found that dd didn't respond well to the X test but we got much better results with the Y test" and it goes from there.

Ultimately (or it was at ours at least) the Paed is the one who has the final say. So if there are any disagreements then he/she will draw their own conclusions from what they have heard at the meeting, read in the reports, and seen for themselves.

Thanks coppertop.