Ds1 is 7, and has been having problems at school right from the start. He's obviously very clever, his reading and maths are way ahead of his classmates, but his social and communication skills are way behind. He finds it almost impossible to sit and concentrate at school, although occasionally something will catch his attention and then he will work beautifully, so usually he manages to produce no written work at all. He struggles with PE and any situation that is noisy, doesn't really play with the other children, has terrible handwriting, disrupts lessons, .... loads of thing really.
His teacher thinks he has 'social and communication difficulties' and I would agree. He has been observed by someone from the local support team for children with autistic spectrum conditions, and he thinks Ds would be somewhere on the spectrum, but is not qualified to diagnose. I think he could do with some extra support in the classroom, perhaps some extra time with a TA to help with written work. So what do we do?? Would a diagnosis of ASD matter?
I have an appointment with my GP to discuss. I think I should ask for a referral to a psychiatrist? I would like someone to make a judgement about his intelligence, because perhaps if we can state that he is massively underachieving (which he is) then we may be able to justify the extra resouces that way. I don't suppose the G&T scheme will come up with anything.
Any advice? Thanks for your help.