Age of diagnosis

[Primine]

I have been finding that most people on this site have their children in school already and may not have had early intervention (which is seen as critical in any treatment). Was just curious at what age people are generally being diagnosed. While signs can be seen as early as 12 months, it cannot be diagnosed until 18 months. Generally someone diagnosed after 5 years is seen as late.

[darky]

i agree, my daughter was dx at the age of 6 and i feel that was far too late. even now i cant pin down a firm dx for my child such as aspergers as its deemed she is too young to test for higher order language skills. hence the umbrellar dx of pdd-nos.

she was showing signs for as long as i can rememeber, pica was looked into when she was 3-4 and have just found out that pica is actualy a symptom of autism, considering that i was complaining about behaviour difficulties from a very young age, im very surprised everything i said was dismissed until she went to school.

 

my son now almost 9 yrs old is looking like being dx with aspergers, but because he is passive, the symptoms have been so much more subtle in the eyes of the education system. again i have had worries about him for some considerable time.

[katkin]

Hi Primine, I shall be very interested in this thread as it is something that interests me greatly. Can I ask why you do not diagnose before 18mths? Is this because development is delayed in some children? Yet more and more we hear that early intervention and help is beneficial yet parents struggle enormously to get any kind of help let alone a diagnosis. At present I am working in an early years environment and I have one boy who has just received his formal diagnosis at 4yrs 1mth but cannot put this on the poll as I am not his parent! Kat

[Helen]

I've 'ticked the box' in your poll, my son was diagnosed at 11yrs old.

[lynyona]

my son wasnt dx untill a month before his 18th birthday. lynn

[pim]

ds was 3.5 years old. I feel that the audiologist and paeditrician were very good at picking it up when he was so young.

 

pim

[nellie]

I ticked the box 'greater than six'.

 

I have two sons, the eldest (27) was diagnosed with autism at 19, he attended a special school from the age of 10.

 

My younger son (24) was diagnosed with AS a few months ago. He attended mainstream school. He suffered a breakdown at 20, he still suffers from depression and hasn't worked for 4 years.

[Primine]

While signs are present as early as 12 months they cannot be formally diagnosed until 18 months to account for maturation and unavailability and unreliability of symptoms.

 

I am very biased in the work I do. At my centre we work with the most severe cases of Autism so we are not exposed to many AS children. I am still shocked at the numbers I am seeing here. It is mandatory for us to discharge children at 6 years, regardless of how the treatment has been going. (no one is being discharged right now however, a case is pending in the courts)

[annie]

My son, who is 16 this week was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 6. He was later diagnosed with Asperger's when he was 11. Both were made while we were living in Australia. We had tried to find out what was wrong since he was 3, but nobody in the UK was interested. We moved to Australia when he was 5 and it was only then that people realised that there really were problems. He was finally diagnosed Asperger's after being referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Department in Melbourne for anger management over a 6 week assessment.

 

Annie

[Sallya]

My son was a month short of his 6th birthday, so I ticked 6.

s

xxx

[mandyque]

I was one of the luckier ones, my daughter was 2.5 years when she got her diagnosis, she developed normally until 18 months then over the next year lost her speech and awareness, her concentration disappeared etc etc. She was a classic, clear cut case so it was easily recognised and diagnosed. She was admitted to the local childrens centre pretty soon after that and got into the system early. It hasn't all been roses but I am glad that she got started in the right place at the right time, there was no way she could have ever coped with mainstream school, she couldn't talk and was still in nappies, not to mention her behaviour!

[Primine]

Mandyque: What was she formally diagnosed with? Was it autism, aspergers, childhood disintegrative disorder, or something else?

[Primine]

Here is something I just looked up from my resources:

 

Evidence presented by Howlin and Moore (1997) found that in a study of 1300 families from the United Kingdon [this is a Canadian source I'm citing] with children with autism, fewer than 10% were given a diagnosis at the initial assessment at 2 years of age, despite that almost ALL of the parents had felt their child was not developing normally by 18 months of age. A further 25% of the families were required to have consults with 3 or 4 other professionals before a diagnosis was obtained.

 

Howlin and Moore concluded that: a) parental concerns about a child's development need to be taken more seriously by professionals and diagnosis in itself is important but does not improve the child's prognosis unless accompanied by practical interventions and supports to the family.

 

Should you be paranoid if your child seems to be different? No... but you should definitely have him checked out by multiple doctors are there seems to be a terrible flaw in the diagnosis system.

Edited September 20, 2005 by Primine

[forbsay]

Hello

 

My son got diagnosed when he was 2.5 years old. Really glad it was an early diagnosis. However, when we went for appointment we thought it was for a speech assessment and we came out with the autism diagnosis..................

[Zemanski]

knew Com was unusual at birth

 

grandad suggested autism at 3 but we disregarded it as he had eye contact and interacted well with adults

 

problems in class first noticed at 5

 

dyspraxia diagnosed at 7

 

told by consultant who diagnosed dyspraxia that other problems were our fault at 8

 

diagnosed by new consultant with AS at 9

 

- consultants only looked at AS because a friend (S&L therapist) asked if he had AS so I pushed to see someone about it - hence new consultant, the LEA wanted him in an EBD unit at this point but no professional thought of autism - now they say it is obvious!!!!

 

Zemanski

[candy]

My son was dx a week after his 2nd birthday. If my HV had taken me seriously when I expressed concern at the 12 months check it could have been 18 months. Someone with a better knowledge of ASD's would have picked it up then as looking back it was glaringly obvious.

He is now 5 and non verbal (and georgous )

[phasmid]

Primine, I have been researching SEN provision for my BA dissertation (as many members on here will know) and part of my questionnaire was just such a question. My research showed the peak ages for dx of SEN to be 6-9 yrs. Suspicions of ASD (and many other 'mental health' issues - ADD/ADHD etc) do occur at an earlier age but diagnosis can, in some cases, take years.

 

In my case I cannot really tick the boxes that apply for my son. He was officaly diagnosed at 3 as Autistic. However, we were NOT informed of this at that time (a 'label' being judged to be unhelpful!). His 'offical' offical dx was of AS and made at 10/11 yrs of age.

[bid]

Hi!

 

Concerns from the age of 3 (although in retrospect worries from under 1, but thought I was just neurotic )

 

Dx for Dyspraxia at 5.

 

Dx for AS at 7.

 

My son is now 16, and in those days it was exceptional to get a dx of AS at such a 'young' age. Ten odd years ago most children were diagnosed with AS at around 12 or 13.

 

Bid

[Mother in Need]

Diagnosed at 11, though problems 'overlooked' for years and thought to be related to his dyslexia and diabetes and that he simply took after his dad.

[Kathryn]

My child was diagnosed at 15 with AS. She was assessed by a child psychologist at 11 but it wasn't picked up then. There were general concerns about her late development (she walked and talked at 20 months) but when she hit these milestones running everyone stopped worrying. At school she had social problems but they were never enough to concern people deeply, beyond the feeling that she was a bit different. I don't think she would ever have been diagnosed as a baby.

[mandyque]

Mandyque: What was she formally diagnosed with? Was it autism, aspergers, childhood disintegrative disorder, or something else?

She had a diagnosis of Childhood Autism. Where the 'childhood' part comes into it I don't know, autistic children become autistic adults, I hate that label because it makes it sound like she will grow out of it!

[oracle]

I said 3 years because that was when my youngest was given his dx. But you will need to add another older than 6 as I have two with ASD and my eldest was not given his dx until just after his 13th Birthday.

 

Carole

[Lynden]

My son just turned 2. We knew he had problems from around 10-12 months and autism has been suggested on and off about since he was 18 months or so. We have no formal diagnosis yet but its being mentioned more frequently at appointments. We see the head consultant of his child devt team in a fortnight so will be asking her a lot of questions!

 

Lynne x

[CarerQuie]

Rh was dx at 5,although it was suspected just before his third birthday.xx

[bluejean-genie]

Nat was first picked up at age 4 yrs by his nursery teacher as she felt he had a mental problem. At 5 yrs old his headteacher thought he had Autistic tendencies. his specialist diagnosed him as Dyspraxic aged 6 yrs, then at 8 yrs he was diagnosed as having Tourettes syndrome and at 10 yrs he was finally diagnosed as having an ASD (best described as AS)

[Brook]

My son was dx ASD aged 4yrs 1month, the actual assessments started 1yr before.

 

Brook

[KarenT]

I've answered greater than six years. J doesn't have a full dx yet but it's expected (and all the reports so far suggest) that he'll get a dx of AS. However, on the report submitted by her to the DWP for his DLA claim, the psychiatrist has stated that he has a 'pervasive development disorder which lies on the autistic spectrum'. My interpretation of that is that he is definitely autistic but the assessment process is fine-tuning that dx (if anyone can explain it otherwise please enlighten me). J is seven in November and although we're in the final stages of diagnosis with his last SALT assessment on Thursday, I can't see us getting a final dx before then.

 

Incidentally, this is J's second assessment, the first being carried out age 5 when he was in reception. My concern then was ADHD and the outcome was that he had 'no sign of ADHD' which suggests that the 'psychiatrist' at the time didn't include ASDs in his investigation. I truly believe that if he'd been more thorough J's condition would have been picked up earlier.

 

Karen

x

[Jadensmum]

Jaden was diagnosed a month after his 2nd Birthday. He was referred for assessment by our Health Visitor and diagnosed 2 weeks after.

 

He was also a classic, clear cut case and the signs were there from when he was about 1 year old.

 

I am obviously very pleased he was diagnosed so early. This has meant that he has been attending a special needs group at our local family centre for a year now, he started the PECS system a couple of months ago, seen a speech thereapist, O/T, physio, is part of a county wide early intervention programme and we have just applied for full time support for him when he starts nursery in January.

 

He also goes to a Daycare childminder twice a week (part of the Inclusion Support service) so I can have a break and catch up oon some sleep!

 

The support we have had has been amazing (although I know it is not like that for everyone)

 

Denisex

[call me jaded]

My son accessed portage and a special needs nursery although his dx did not come through until he was 10 years old. The average age for diagnosis in the UK is 7, I believe.

 

Very few have had access to the kind of early intervention you are trained for Primine. We do a very simplified version of Stanley Greenspan's Floortime in our house. Not intensive and child-led.

[Suze]

We had a dx at 8yrs.

[streamdreams]

our dx is

 

4 , 6, 38 but it's thanks to the 6 yeaold that the other two got their dx

 

Julian

[Tylers-mum]

My son is 6 and although he hasn't yet been dx, he is going through the process of it now. I voted 6yrs + in any case. Had the Pead listened to my concerns when I first had them, then he could have been dx as early as 2yrs old but it's taken me 4yrs just to get this far and have him referred for assessment.

[Alphazebra]

I am 27. I don't have an offical diagnosis although my counsellor is convinced I have AS. She was the first to even suggest or mention the concept to me and I had seen psychologists, clinical psychiatrists and psychiatrists on and off for approximately 3 of the 5 years before seeing her. I am not sure if a diagnosis at my age would really make any difference.

[DaisyProudfoot]

Hi,

 

My son was 9 when he got his official AS dx although we had been concerned about autistic traits since he was about 3 years old.

 

I first voiced my concerns about autism to his headteacher when he was 5 but there was a lot in the news at the time about autism and the MMR vaccine so she just dismissed me as jumping on the band wagon.

 

We struggled along for a few more years and then I voiced my concerns to his form teacher (who is also SEN teacher) when he was 8 as she too was having concerns about dyspraxia. As a cub leader I had worked with a couple of kids, one with AS, the other with more severe autism, and saw a lot of similarities with my own son so I wondered if this is what Martin had. GP saw him and agreed, Peed saw him and agreed, Psychiatrist saw him and agreed - from going to the GP to full dx took just 8 months. But I knew something was wrong from about 3 years old.

 

Good poll by the way

 

Daisy

[bevalee]

My son was diagnosed at 14 after years of being told thier was nothing wrong with him.

[UltraMum]

ADHD at 4

 

Dyspraxia at 5

 

HFA at 6 and a half

 

Autistic specific intervention - 9 years and three months ie today

[asereht]

Had worries from a very early age was a little slow to talk but then seemed to come on in leaps and bounds , not socially though, tried to get assessments for years. Finally got one at 12 and was told possibily ADHD and dyspraxia, six months later may be Aspergers. Then last Feb dx of (ASD) Aspergers and Developmental co-ordination delay ( similar to dyspraxia) when he'd just turned 14. Now added to dx Social anxiety disorder and elective mutism , he will be 15 next jan.

[barefoot wend]

My son was officially diagnosed aged 6.

 

We'd been to see a speech therapist and psychiatrist prior to this and I had kept on saying that I strongly believed the symptoms were part of a bigger picture. Looking back it seems amazing that no-one picked up on all the signs. I guess this is a fairly typical scenario for most of us.

[kazzdt]

This is definately the typical scenario!

 

I voiced my concerns about Sam to the HV when he was 2. I was directed to use a naughty step! He was eventually dx ADHD at 9 and through persistance and a certain amount of luck (!) dx AS a few weeks before his 11th birthday!!

[tsmom]

Toria was dx at 6.Problems showed since 2 1/2 when she couldnt cope in playgroup.School was hard for Toria but the dr that i should leave well alone.I insisted he refere her on the advice for school.