This was a weird one. Long post sorry!!
Both of us turned up as CAMHS always ask for us both to be there but then got told only one of us could go in the room. This was a pain as DH had taken time off work and I had organised and paid for childcare for DS2 for the day.
When the two therapists came into the waiting room, we had just got a packet of crisps for DS who had come straight from school and was starving and nervous ? he likes to munch when nervous. They were not happy with this so we waited while DS ate some crisps in the waiting room. The psychologist then tells me to leave the crisps in the waiting room. I say I?ll put them in my bag. She grabs them and says ?leave them on the chair, they?ll cause a problem?. I snatched them back and said? they won?t?. She says ?they will?. I say ?I know my own child, they?ll be fine, he?s 7 not stupid?
Great start!!
Test goes quite well in that they managed to engage him and got a good picture of him.
He was at a loss with the ?what makes a friend? questions ? they play with you. As for the marriage question, forget it.
He couldn?t explain feelings. He knew what made him mad/sad etc but not how it made him feel. He had no idea of anything he could do to irritate someone else.
He said he never felt lonely and couldn?t see how anyone could be??
He stumbled on the make-belief brush teeth ? ?I haven?t got a tooth brush? and it had to be explained that he had to pretend. He did it half-heartedly.
He managed to do stories with toys and random objects but there was quite a lot of copying of the psychologists stories.
When given a task to play by himself, he drew. A spinning top was placed by him and spun by the psychologist. He just tutted and knocked it away and continued with his drawing.
He got up and lolled around a bit but mainly stayed focused
He explained what happens after school ? describing a routine.
He was able to explain a story from the pictures but was a bit rubbish on describing the faces
He kept looking to me for approval but I wasn ?t supposed to say anything so I smiled lots and gave thumbs up!
All in all, a pretty accurate reflection of the complex chap he is.
I asked if they would let us have the results. No. I asked why? They were pretty patronising trying to explain that it is a multi-disciplinary process and parents get too worked up about the results (although the head of service told me that it all rested on the results in DS?s case). I get the feeling they don?t score them and just make a decision when they all sit in the panel watching the dvd!!
I did get an apology about the crisps though which strangely didn?t disrupt the process!!
Why you have to be spoken to as if you?re dysfunctional or stupid I don?t know!!