At the very early stages...

[GreatZapper]

Hi all

 

My wife and I are just starting to suspect LittleZapper (very almost 4) may have an ASD; reading some stuff last night on the web a lot of stuff made a lot of sense, all sparked by a nagging feeling for a while that something isn't quite "right" and then a random, yet very literal, comment by her that set my alarm bells ringing (I'm a Head of Year in a mainstream secondary, and deal with students on the spectrum on a daily basis - I've also suspected for a while that I may well have an undiagnosed ASD). I know for example Aspergers is much more common in boys than girls, though there's just something about what we read last night (especially about routines, and food) that just sounded just like her.

 

Question is, where do we go from here? My gut instinct is to talk to the SENCO at her pre-school; but should we also think about approaching the health visitor or even the GP? I'm a bit confused as where to turn, and don't know the procedure, or even what the benefit would be to her at this stage, as she's not struggling at pre-school by any means, though I do realise in the long run it would probably be benefical.

 

Sorry for the cluelessness here; I'm just a bit lost...

Edited November 21, 2007 by GreatZapper

[Bagpuss]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

 

I have two daughters who are on the spectrum. One diagnosed with Autism, the other with Aspergers.

 

Our youngest was referred via a health visitor referral to a child development centre. The HV was concerned her development was delayed, in many areas, and this eventually led to the ASD diagnosis.

 

Our eldest daughter was referred via our GP (to our youngest paediatrician). We had had a chat with him about our concerns re our eldest daughter, and he agreed that there could be cause for concern. He told us to go to GP, and request a referral. He later diagnosed Aspergers.

 

I'd probably start with your GP or HV.

[pearl]

Welcome to the forum GreatZapper.

JP was dx'd at 5 through school raising concerns & calling in autism reseach team. Then went to GP to get referral to specialist.

 

But I wish he'd been spotted earlier. Like Baggy says, HV/GP first port of call.

And yes, the SENCO may have some useful observations, though have to say, lady in charge of JP's playgroup was in complete denial when I was raising concerns when he was three

[Karen A]

Hi.Great Zapper.First of all welcome to the Forum. <'>

Personally I think it would be worth talking to your GP.If you happen to have a good relationship with your HV you could try her-however she may not be as aware as your GP regarding ASD -especially if I am right in thinking that the aspects you are wondering about are more subtle.

The GP will decide whether to do a referal to either the ''Child Development Team'' or Camhs [a Psychiatrist].I am not sure which as I am not certain what the upper age limit is for assessment by CDT-it may vary from one area to the next.

It would be worth talking to the SENCO to put her/him in the picture and talk about any support that the pre-school can provide.However the pre-school may not offer a lot of input at this stage unless it is cosidered that extra support is needed in pre-school above what is ''usual''.

 

Even if you decide that no help is needed in pre-school it is worth talking to the GP.

When Ben was at nursery there was never the slightest consideration that he might have any SEN.

He was cosidered to be bright with a bit of an attitude problem.

By the time Ben entered year 3 he was considered to have a serious attitude problem and was very stresssed.

He now has a Statement and a Dx of DCD with Social Communication Difficulties and is doing very well.

It took us two years....so it is worth thinking about it even if things appear ok now.

 

If I am telling you a lot of things you already know then never mind. Karen

[LizC]

Hi My son was diagnosed with aspergers at 5 just gone (so over 2 years ago now) we always suspected something but HVs were always useless and gave me info on behaviour etc, nothing helped, even his nursery didn't think anything was the matter depite him never settling there and would always cry and tamtrum everyday on the floor so everyone had to step over him! anyway at 4 1/2 i took him to the gp and he was great, he referred him within 5 mins of seeing him to a child and adolescent mental health team. that was the december, by april someone had come out to see us and agreed there was something so he went to the centre for a 13wk assessment that started in the may and by september he was diagnosed.

 

hope that helped, I know everywhere is different though.

[Confusedmum]

Hi Zapper, My little girls has AS, She was diagnosed in september this year just before her 5th birthday, it was her nursery that referred DD to our local child development centre. Her assessment and diagnosies was actually extremely quick, we had our first interview with them at the end of july and by early september we had our dx.

[Clare63]

Hi GreatZapper and welcome to the forum, my son was only diagnosed this year we were referred by our GP to CAMHS at our local hospital, who after a year diagnosed him with aspergers. You'll find lots of support, ideas and help on this forum, its a real crutch at a somewhat, confussing, emotional & frustrating time.

Clare x x x

[pebbs10]

My son was dx'd a few weeks ago, but I went to my GP and asked for him to be refered as I knew there was something not right, now my son's school thinks my older son might also have AS so went to my GP again and got him refered so just waiting for an appt which hopefully will be soon.

[bluefish]

hi zapper,It was the nursery staff that noticed e was different within weeks of him starting. They contacted the health visitor who made the referal. e then attended child development centre. I think speak to health visitor or GP. Good luck. I hope you get the help and advice you need

[GreatZapper]

Bumping this after three months or so... hope no-one minds.

 

Anyway, after a few months of umming and aaahing on our part - but our concerns still being there - today we finally took LittleZapper to see the GP, who fortunately also recognised that there may well be something worth investigating and has referred us on to the community paediatrician. All good, and contrary to our expectations, as our family GP seemingly never refers anything on.

 

Thank you all for your help, and I'll be back - almost certainly come September, when LittleZapper starts school...

[Bagpuss]

Good luck GZ

[forbsay]

Hi.

 

Welcome to the forum. My son was diagnosed as being autistic when he was 2.5 years old. It was his nursery that approached us and it was about the same time as he had his review at the health visitors. It all started from then.

[jo4themo]

Hi Zapper and welcome. My DD wasn't dx until she was 6 due to the fact that she suffers mmonility problems (she didn't walk until she was 3) so everybody was concentrating on that and not other things. Looking back, though, she showed signs of having an ASD as young as 6 months old - the noises and an open-mouth thing she does when excited. By the age of 4 she was not mixing with other children and had bad temper tantrums (throwing things etc) which we put down to her frustration at her lack of mobility. By the time she was 5 I had begun to suspect ASD and a reception at our hospital actually asked me if she had autism after watching her having an "ism" over some fish (hand flapping, noises etc). We casually mentioned this to her paediatricain at our next visit and he agreed she shared some characteristics of ASD (this is after he had done countless blood tests etc on her to rule out other things, some rather rare and obscure!) and it went from there. She was assessed by the ASD Panel and 6 months after we first mentioned it she was diagnosed with Aspergers.

BTW, DD was also under the care of a speech therapist, SENCO and physio from the age of 3 and up and none of them noticed her Asperger traits!

Emma