aspergers assessment

[hamandegger]

We are taking DS for a first assessment on Tuesday, as we and his school suspect he may have aspergers - can anyone tell me what I can expect from this first assessment, and how it would be for DS(5). One of my main concerns is how he will find the assessment.

Take any home movies or a diary if possible, maybe baby record book, because we were asked loads of questions that I struggled to remember and had to go back and check.
He will be fine, they may ask if he wants to go outside with them but they dont tend to push it too much.
TBH I wouldnt prepare him, sounds terrible but they need to see the true him to get an idea of what its like for you.

Write down your concerns before you go and make sure school have sent a report especially if no one is coming from school. HTH

I agree with lisad123, try to write down in advance the areas where your child has problems etc, because it can be really hard to remember everything. They also asked lots of questions regarding when my DS reached developmental milestones etc. We live in London and had our first assessment at local hospital, the whole family went and we all stayed in the same room - lots of toys etc. DS was later referred to Great Ormond Street which was much more thorough. Again we had a whole-family assessment, DS2 and his big brother then went off to "play" with two of the doctors while we had a more intense questionnaire. DS2 and his big bro really loved it actually, they were really not aware that DS2 was being assessed. Hope it goes well.

thanks for all your answers, i will definately make some notes to take with me, I have a folder of observations from school too so will take that too.How long should I expect to be in there? Is it likely they will diagnose on a first appointment? thanks for all you help

we were there a good few hours, and got verbal informal dx at time and then formal 8 months later

Ds had his 1st assessment took about one and half hours, i spoke to one person, while one played with ds to observe his reactions, described some picture cards to him and asked him to guess what it was.

2nd appointment was a few weeks later with me alone, to talk about his developmental history from birth onwards.

Just waiting for ds's case to be discussed at monthly team meeting. Then meeting is called which i attend to give dx.

Was given verbal dx of autism at 1st meeting.

thanks , this is all really helpful. Im nervous about this, but want to make sure we do everything right, and hopefully get a diagnosis. what does a formal diagnosis involve? thanks again for all your answers, I havent approached the sn boards before, I really appreciate your guidance. As ds is our first child his behavours hadnt really been worrying to us, as we had no comparison, but since starting school certain things have become very apparent, we've been very lucky in how the school have dealt with everything, from making him his own private space to taking the time to make a plan and go through it with him at the beginning of each day. Hopefully i diagnosis one way or the other can only help.

is the school attending?

sorry hes been poorly so not been able to check. school arent attending, just me and dh

bumping in case anyone has any further advice/info before tuesday. thanks

bump bumpo

we've just been through all this and had diagnosis of Aspergers last week for DS who is 6 1/2.

Our first appointment was with a Paediatrician and a Speech and Language chap. At this stage I thought DS had ADHD.
At this app the Speech chap took DS off to another room. DS later reported he had a great time and kept asking for weeks when he was going to play with Tom again (bless
Whilst DS was off with Tom, the paediatrician asked us to start from the beginning - what pregnancy was like, what the birth was like, how he was as a baby, a lot about things like when he first spoke, before he spoke could he make his needs felt by pointing or babbling, how was eye contact, questions about imaginative play etc.

I had got thie referral via the GP who had already asked me to write down my areas ofr concern. I filled 3 sides of A4....... she had sent this to the Paed so they already had it, but I took it with me as well. I also took copies of everything I had sent them in response to the letter they had sent informing me of the appointment - strengths and difficulties questionnaires etc, and copies of school reports.

We were there about 2 hours, and DS wasnt in the room for this whole chat bit. Tom (speech man) brought him back in at some point and they quickly realised we werent done and they took him off again. When they did come back they chatted to us about what Tom had observed and mentioned Aspergers. DS was in the room for this bit but it was all over his head.

The second appointment last week they did an ADOS (Autistic Diagnostic Observation Score or something) because they felt they needed to do another assessment to assess if it was autism or not. This was lots of engineered little scenarios where Tom wrote down how DS behaved and they then produce a score which, as I understand it, if its higher than a certain level indicates ASD. This appointment was also 2 hours and this time they got a nurse to take DS to the waiting room while they delivered their diagnosis and gave us a bit of time to digest it and ask questions and so on.

Before both these appointments we told DS we were going to see some people who would help us to be better parents and help him the best we could, so we turned it into something about us, not him. He wasnt anxious at all, and abxiety is one of his "things"

Good luck with your appointment. Just realised its tomorrow so you wont have read this before you go, but good luck anyway
Jillxo

thanks for all that, i just logged on before we go to see if there were any responses. Ive written down all my concerns and am taking some observational reports from school. I think we are seeing someone who specialises in autistic diagnosis so hopefully stating out on the right foot. ill post how we get on. thanks again for all your replies

We have a formal diagnosis after 1hour of ADS with aspergers symptoms, which im trying to digest now. not really sure where to go from here, but thanks for all your answers re the assesment.