Aspergers assessment - what to expect?

[DianeAdores]

I know it's been done before, but I need to hear it again for myself.

We are pretty certain that our DS, who's just turned eight, has Aspergers. His teacher is likewise convinced of this. We have been wondering about having him assessed since he was a very small toddler, but it's only now that it's really starting to affect his life and attempts to make friends that we have decided to take it further. It's also affecting our lives and our other child's life in quite a bad way.

We've been to see the GP to ask about what's involved in a referral, but were both very scared by the list he came out with: social workers, key workers, speech/language therapists, psychologists, etc, etc, etc. We are very anxious about somehow finding ourselves lost in a maze of Asperger assessments that we don't understand and that, in some cases, don't seem relevant (though maybe they are, only we don't know it!)

Could anyone who's been through this please tell me what actually happens? It may well vary from area to area, but any insights would be very, very welcome. We just feel lost and desperate at the moment.

My DD1 has just been diagnosed and although lots of people had an input some, like school, were just sent questionnaires.

The Psychologist spent a long time with me going through her developmental history and then he was the coordinator in terms of putting the evidence together.

The Educational Psychologist saw her at home because she couldn't attend school and went through some tests which were talking through little scenarios, looking at pictures of faces etc.

A specialist autism teacher came to see her and they filled in a questionnaire together about her experiences of social interaction, routines, worries, etc. It wasn't very long or in depth.

DD1 was asked her opinion about whether she identified with the description of people with AS.

Then the psychologist pulled it all together, clarified a few issues with me by email and the wrote the diagnostic report.

It may be different in your area but none of the process was at all difficult for her.

It took quite a few months to get through but it was fine.

Thanks very much for this. That sounds much less stressful than I'd feared.

Would love to hear from others to see how their experiences compared.