advice please..

[gemgems77]

malachy is 5 and had his first appointment with peadatrician in may doctor diognoised him with autism but since then was seen by the psycologist who disagreed said he was to cheeky (sorry to repeat if anyone read meet and greet forum) we have had lots of meetings at school since then and been seen by speech thepapist as he has speech delay said was concerned about concentration more that speech he goes full time school apat from thurs and fri as he gets very tired at end of week and cant cope havent heard anything from doc as said to go back in 6 months which is now up ..how do i persuie getting him seen agian as school said would chase but that was in nov

[Cat]

malachy is 5 and had his first appointment with peadatrician in may doctor diognoised him with autism but since then was seen by the psycologist who disagreed said he was to cheeky (sorry to repeat if anyone read meet and greet forum) we have had lots of meetings at school since then and been seen by speech thepapist as he has speech delay said was concerned about concentration more that speech he goes full time school apat from thurs and fri as he gets very tired at end of week and cant cope havent heard anything from doc as said to go back in 6 months which is now up ..how do i persuie getting him seen agian as school said would chase but that was in nov

 

Did the paediatrician diagnose your son at his first meeting with him and on what did he base his diagnosis? For example did he do and ADOS test on your son? These days it is considered to be best practice to diagnose and ASD using a team of people or a multi-disciplinary assessment as it is referred to now. The reason for this is so that all of the professionals who have their own area of specialism like speech therapists can see the child and use their own assessments. Then the team meet discuss their findings and a diagnosis is either given or not of the basis of several professionals. Having said this if the paediatrician diagnosed autism then they must be pretty sure that this is what your son has. When you say that a psychologist has told you that your son has not got autism, was this an educational psychologist or a clinical psychologist? There is a BIG difference between the two. One is qualified to diagnose autism, that would be the clinical psychologist, while the other is not, that would be the educational psychologist. If it is a an educational psychologist who is saying this then it is not up to them to question the diagnosis of the paediatrician and I would be telling them this. The speech therapist you are seeing may not be an autism specific therapist ? and again there is a difference ? but their remarks do not rule out autism. Children with autism often have poor concentration and just because a child is verbal it does not rule out autism. A speech delay can also suggest autism. It was a speech therapist who first had concerns about our youngest and he has a speech delay.

 

If you want to see the doctor again then ring their secretary and say that you need to see them as soon as possible. You can then tell the doctor the problems that you are having with other professionals who are questioning the diagnosis. I would imagine that the doctor won?t be too happy about that. Children with autism can often find a school week tiring but if this is the case then what measure has the school taken to try and support your son? Has he got a statement? If not is he on school action plus?

 

Cat

 

 

[gemgems77]

im not sure what the test ADOS is but when we went it was a 2 hr appointment with him asking malachy to do things and lots and lots of questions about preg birth and his progress and behaviour from birth to now, although malachy got very disstressed in the last half hr and kept repeating the word car and screaming ...i am not sure about the psycologist ,with regards to the speach theripast she saw malachy on 3 occasions the first 2 was at the centre and malachy refused to have anything to do with her he just blackned her then she saw him at school and did some tests and concluded that his phonics were ok just needed practice on certian words and use of sentences but said she was more concerned about his concentration as she found it really hard to get him to listen to her and left it at that!! school is giving him 15 min a day speach therapy and social skills with a small group of 4 and has funded one 2 one untill easter but as regards to statmenting they have said see how he his then ,school phoned today and have said have got parental support adviser coming tommorow dont know what she does but will find out ,

[Cat]

 

From what you have written it sounds like the ADOS assessment to me. Here is a little bit about the ADOS

 

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) is a widely used, standardised diagnostic assessment tool. The schedule uses semi-structured activities to assess the communication, reciprocal social interaction, play or imagination, stereotyped behaviours and restricted interests of individuals with possible Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). The ADOS consists of four modules which are designed to match individuals? expressive language ability and age. Each module presents a set of tasks allowing observation of behaviours relevant to the diagnosis of PDD and takes about 30-45 minutes to administer.

 

Anyone who performs the ADOS has to be qualified to do so so if this is what your son has had then the Psycologist should not be questioning the diagnosis. If the psycologist is someone whom your son has seen in school they will be an Educational Psychologist.

 

The parental suport advisor could be from Parent Partnership and they are there to help parents like us. Some are excellent and some are not so hot - like everything else it is a postcode lottery. But you have to be positive about this because this person should be able to help you to get a statement for your son and should also be aware that an Educational Psychologist should not be questioning a diagnosis. The speech therapist does not sound too good to me. It is up to her to find ways to interact with your son or feed back to those who she is working for that she requires some input from someone else. Where I live our SALTs (Speech and Language Therapists) have regular meetings with the paediatrician, the psychologists and the Autism Outreach Team (I would be asking the parent support advisor tomorrow if your Local Authority have an Autism Outreach Team because they are the ones who should be helping the school right now) to make sure that everyone who is involved with the child is kept fully up to date and that if additional support is required other professionals are aware of this.

 

Let us know how you get on tomorrow.

 

Cat