autisim assessment appointment

[kerrie]

hi, i haven't been on here for a while. my son has got a autism assessment on Tuesday at the psychologist team at the hospital. he is 9 yrs old, and it says they talk to us, talk to Ryan (my son) and then do some puzzle/game activities with him. im a little nervous and just wondered if anybody new what type of puzzle/game activities it will be for a 9 yr old? ive looked it up on the internet and cant find anything. any help on this would be appreciated as i seem to be stressing about this alot. x

[justine1]

Hi

 

My son had his assessment age 6 so it may be slightly different. The puzzles they done were to assess memory and perception(and other things!) What I can remember (it was almost four years ago now) there was shaped blocks that the paediatrician made a certain design with she would give him about a minute to remember it and then get him to rebulid it the same way.

Another was a very detailed picture of the seaside, with people and various objects(similar to a "where's wally" scene) he had to name as many things as he could that were in the picture.

Then there were some similarity type questions for example how is a train similar to a car? it would be they are both forms of transport. (my son done very bad on this section getting just one out of ten right!)

 

I am sure you will have similar puzzles for your son maybe just slightly more age appropriate.

[kerrie]

thanks for your reply. hes been to the appointment now, and as far as i am aware it went really well.

me and his dad spent an hour talking to someone in a room and ryan went off and did some sort of IQ test. then they said they will be in touch with us and left it at that.

just wondered if there was more testing or am i waiting for the results or is there more to the assessment. xx

[bed32]

In terms a diagnosis that may well be all there is. They should be able to tell on the basis of that whether he gets a formal diagnosis of ASD. If it is not ASD then I guess there may be more assessments to try to work out what it is.

 

However whatever happens this is really only the first stage to building up a full understanding of his needs. No two ASD children are alike and so a diagnosis of ASD is only one part of understanding your son. To get a complete understanding you need to look in a lot more depth as areas such as OT, SALT, Executive functioning and so on.

 

The problem with some children is that they have "spikey" profiles that exhibit a very wide range of abilities in different areas. A simple assessment of SALT, or IQ may give an average result but mask the fact that there are some very great difficulties in some areas.

[kerrie]

thankyou i appreciate any advise given.

what is SALT? i am quite new to all of this.

the main thing he needs help with his anxiety, his anxiety levels are through the roof, and i think its having a big impact on everything, school, sleeping, going out to places, how he is with people. do you know what help there is out there for this sort of thing? x

[bed32]

SALT is speech and language therapy. The three core professionals you need are SALT, Occupational Therapy (OT) and Psychology (usually an Educational Psychologist - EP).Between them the will be able to go into details as to his strengths and weaknesses and could give you a much better understanding of his needs.

 

Unfortunately you will not get much help in this area from the state. He should get access to an EP through school, and the NHS have SALT and OT but in each case you are likely to get only a very simple diagnosis and not much therapy.

 

You are quite right - managing his anxiety is key to making progress. One thing that may not be readily apparent is that there is quite likely to be a strong sensory component to his anxiety. This would be assessed by an OT with postgraduate training in Sensory Integration Therapy. Unfortunately NHS don't do Sensory Integration, so the only way to get that diagnosed is privately. Once diagnosed you can get it provided for on his statement. If he exhibits signs of unusual sensory response (avoiding certain sounds, getting distressed or confused in noisy places, seeking out touch or other sensory stimulii) then you should try to get that investigated. Google for "vestibular" - vestibular disorders are treated by Sensory Integration Therapy

 

If he has significant problems at school then you should apply for a Statutory Assessment - that will require the LA to perform a multi-disciplinary assessment and should include some input from SALT and OT.

[kerrie]

he is having problems at school but more in the terms of going to school and is getting abit frustrated there and refuses to do some things. luckily, his behavior isn't bad at school, he saves that for us when he comes home where he is in the worst mood, taking it out on anybody who stands next to him.

he dosnt have a problem with speech or language, he had a speech and language go into the school and other than afew social problems although he does have a couple of close friends.

the women at the assessment mentioned something about sensory as he chews things and spins around alot, i will have a look on the internet more about vestibular.

i just want to say thank you for your reply's, im finding out more here than people are telling me. im just trying to get my head around it all, so i do appreciate it. x

[bed32]

Having an ASD child makes you realise just how complicated the development of any child is, normal or not. It is only when that development does not proceed normally that you realise how complex it is and how many factors inter-relate to producing a human being. An ASD child may have issues in a number of apparently small areas and yet the impact of that on development is massive.

 

This is one of the problems with ASD, it is a hidden disability. On the surface the child may appear and act almost normally but this hides the fact that he functions in a very different way to a normal child. These differences are not readily apparent but tend to show themselves in ways such as anxiety and difficult behaviour. What is important to realise is that they external symptoms are indications of some more fundamental issue. You cannot help ASD by treating the symptoms, you need to dig down and find out what the underlying causes are.

 

That is probably the single most important thing to learn. If he behaves badly it is not because he is naughty, if he refuses to do something it is not just because he doesn't want to. You are going to come across a lot of nice and well-intentioned people who just look at the symptoms and think "EBD". You will need to look deeper than that and seek out the underlying difficulties

 

It certainly sounds as if there are sensory issues there. This is worth looking into at some time. If you don't understand how his sensory system is working then it is very hard to understand how he perceives the world and why he responds to stimuli in the way he does.

 

Do keep an open mind on the SALT too. A superficial assessment can miss certain problems with language but it is possible that there are certain very specific areas of difficulty that get missed.