Yay....we got referred for the multi disciplinary assessment.

[hotmamalovespavlova]

Title sums it up, really pleased as dd2 wasn't having a massively bad day.

Been told it could be end of the summer for the next appointment so thinking late September.

Also found out today that dd1's half brother now nearly 9 is also being investigated for possible AS-didn't know about this as no contact but his aunt told me his mother has had concerns for some time. Not sure if there is any link of if it can run in families does anyone else know? (found out after our appointment so couldn't tell Paed when she asked if anyone else had any simular conditions grrrrrr.

That is dd2's half brother same dad duh-it's been a long day.

Sorry to hijack but I've also got a mda, however my son is 14 and to be honest after years of being fobbed off I'm not too sure what to expect or what the gains are likely to be or if it's just another means of fobbing me off again. Any advice grateful.

Current thinking does seem to suggest that there is a genetic link to these things.. Give the pead a call to let her know about it.

Minx I'd suggest you go through any written history for your son and make a littlepack up for the meeting. You don't want to be diagnosing your ds, yet you do want to highlight areas of concern .. And you may jolly well forget some of them when your in meetings.

My pack for any meeting I go to now includes, my own areas of concern, anything I have from school or other outside agencies that are areas of concern or would back up what I have said, and what stratagies I use already to overcome issues on a daily basis.

For instants .. If say sleep isn't an issues because I do a, b, and c stratagy.. I highlight it would be an issue if this wasn't done. ( hope that makes sense).

Thanks Arsenic. What you said does make sense - I'm currently in the middle of collating all the info from my reports (all 8 years worth). Fortunately I had a meeting with the school SENCO recently and saw some unsanitised teacher feedback in her hand and managed to get copies, which will hopefully help, especially when compared to the heavily sanitised version we'd been given 2 months previously.

Morning Hotmama, i was told at our concluding multi- d meeting when ds received his dx of autism last week that although the cause of autism is unknown, they suspect it does run in families and if im thinking of having any more kids, Guys Hospital had done some research and had some information i might like to read.

I havent bothered to read the research.

It is also mentioned in a SALT report that my brother was autistic.

I havent done any reading into it though.

Morning Hotmama. Glad you have got the referral through. Yes, it can run in families. Also having certain conditions in the family - e.g. some mental health ones like bipolar can also increase the chances of autism.

Minx - in terms of the gains - hopefully it will force school not to minimise problems any more and deal with things rather than sweep them under the carpet - also some areas have things like autism outreach that would only be available for people with diagnoses of ASD, also a diagnosis can help with getting DLA and possibly support from SS such as respite (though if you lurk on these boards I think you will sadly see how hard it can be for parents to get help from SS)

IME the best thing you can get from a DX is you know where exactly the areas of strengths and weaknesses are.
This means that you can work on these areas to improve both your son's and you family life.
If your lucky you may be able to get outside help in these areas.

bump

btw if you don't hear anything about the assessment in 2 or 3 weeks, chase it up, you want to make sure the referral letter hasn't got lost!