peadiatrician assesment @ two yrs.

[chrissie]

hi, im just wondering if anybody has ever had their two and a half year old assesed for possible aspergers by a peadiatrician? and if yes, what is it they will look for and how? My daughter has been refered by our h.v as she has concerns with her social development. Thankyou.

[moira199]

My son had a review by paeditrician/speech therapist recently but it was inconclusive as my son is a bit like your DD - there are some worrying signs such as lack of speech but his social interaction, eye contact, pointing, motor skills seem fine. I think there is a reluctance to diagnose much before the age of three. I know exactly what you mean about the worry though, it feels like this has been hanging over us for ages now!

 

 

 

Moira

[madmooch]

hi, im just wondering if anybody has ever had their two and a half year old assesed for possible aspergers by a peadiatrician? and if yes, what is it they will look for and how? My daughter has been refered by our h.v as she has concerns with her social development. Thankyou.

 

Hi, we are trying to get our dd 3yr assessed for AS apparently it's very difficult - even though i and probably you can see there's something different about our kids.

 

My ds was assessed at 2yr and dx with severe ASD.

They get the child to intereract - play games, do puzzles,watch them play etc & it's good what they can pick up from that. They will also ask you lot's of question's about your daughter.

Clare

[chrissie]

Thanks guys,such a worry isnt it,i would just rather know than is it or isnt it all the bloomin time!! She is gorgeous whatever and my best friend but i just wann know if there is anything i can do to help things or if shes absoluetly fine and i should stop worrying! What sorts of things do they ask you at the assesment? My h.v said to keep a diary of stuff but im not really sure what to write down!! I dont wanna say 'er,i dunno' to everything they ask! x

[Bullet]

Tom was diagnosed by a multidisciplinary assessment at the age of two years eight months. He was seen first by a paediatrician at the hospital at two and a half who agreed he appeared to be on the spectrum and referred him on to the Child Development Clinic. He was observed in a playroom with other children also being assessed for various things and individually by a speech therapist, educational psychologist, occupational therapist, another doctor who has the head of the department, a physiotherapist and nursery nurses. They checked how he interacted with adults and children, how he played, what his understanding was like, how he communicated and what his fine and gross motor skills were like. The assessment took a little under two weeks.

[madmooch]

Hi, they usually ask what your child is like, what she likes to do, how she interacts with poeple, types of things she enjoys, eats, telly programmes etc.

just think about if you were writing a story of what your daughter is like - funny little ways - everything.

That is what they will want to know.

 

Clare

[Karen A]

Hi I thought it worth adding that it is a good idea to think about your family history too.We were asked about family members with things like coordination problems,speach delay,ASD and mental health issues.The psychiatrist [ben was 8 when he was picked up and so was seen by Camhs rather than CDT] also asked lots of questions about general development from conception onward so it is worth making a note of anything that stands out.

I also wanted to say that getting a clear Dx can be a long road especially in cases like Ben where difficulties do not clearly fit an ASD diagnosis.We are a year on and still have not got a clear agreement between professionals.Hope that does not sound negative but at least if you know you may not get an answer very soon it will not be a shock.Karen

[Lynden]

Logan was taken if for a full weeks assessment at two years and 3 months. He saw physio/OT/SALT/Paed/pysch etc and at the end of that week we got our diagnosis of ASD. He had been seeing the physio, ed pysch, salt and paed prior to that though.

 

Lynne x

[butterfingersbimbo]

el didnt get to see anyone at that age, so am not sure what they will do but good luck!

[chrissie]

Great,thankyou for the replies. so when you say your chidren were assesed over two weeks, did they stay in hospital for that time or was it day visits? Sorry i just dont know anything about the process! x

[MichelleW]

When my son J was about 2 and a half, I had him refered to a paed who spent about 30 mins with him and said " I can get eye contact with him so he can't possibly be autistic". Her main concern was the fact he couldn't talk so she refered him to "speech therapy" which was basically patronising " you need to learn to play with your child properly" therapy. However somewhere and somehow he was refered to a special pre-school for language and communication, and the head teacher agreed with my view that he was autistic (the hand-flapping and spinning had been a give-away from about 1 and a half years!) Anyway, at just over 4, he was seen by a different paed who diagnosed him. She asked a lot of questions about food, playing, imagination - and observed him playing. she also got him to draw and point out pictures etc. I think in total it took about an hour. I think the fact that he would just spin pencils instead of using them to draw just confirmed her suspicions!! But although it was only 2 years ago, I've forgotton most of the assessment!

[elun1]

Hi My second son was diagnosed at 2 and a half with severe autism. He 'failed' his 2yr development check with the HV - he couldn't understand or do a single thing that she wanted him to which came as no surprise to me! He was then referred to a multi-disciplinary team ( speech and lang therapist, paediatrician and clinical psychologist) and observed at a clinic visit which took around 2hrs. They watched him play and tried to interact with him. I was asked a lot of questions about how he was as a baby, his diet, things he likes to do etc. They then had a chat together without me and called me back in and told me he was autistic and said they'd refer him to assessment playgroup at hospital to decide on an appropriate school placement for when he was older. They also sent a someone to house next day to make sure we were OK and arranged for someone from S and L to help me to teach him PECS. It was a very bad time but in hindsight I'm glad he was diagnosed so early but as he is low-functioning I think it was much easier for them to make this diagnosis so quickly. I think it takes a lot longer for children with AS to be diagnosed and this makes for a very stressful time for families.

Take care, Elun xx

[Lynden]

Great,thankyou for the replies. so when you say your chidren were assesed over two weeks, did they stay in hospital for that time or was it day visits? Sorry i just dont know anything about the process! x

 

For Logan it was day visits over a 5 day period, but we got to stay in the hospital accomodation because we lived a fair bit away. He spent the most part of every day with a nursery nurse who's job it was basically was to figure what sort of age he was at developmentally, and how he was socially etc. Then every day we saw various people, the OT, the Speech therapist, the optician, dental technician, clinical pysc, paed etc.

 

We didn't need to see the physio or the educational pyschologist there because he had already had sessions with them so they had full reports done. The clinical psych just takes the family history, asks all the questions about his behaviour, eating, sleeping, all that sort of stuff.

 

At the end of the week we had a group meeting, us and all the professionals and they all gave their reports and the paed gave the conclusion.

 

Lynne

[anita81]

My son was diagnosed at 2 with autism in his first appointment.hes 3 now and is clearly aspergers.Try not to worry about questions they might ask because they really are straight forward questions like how he reacts in groups,what are his eating/sleeping patterns like etc.youve obviously noticed that your childs different so just tell it like it is.