School Reports

Thankfully I was under a mental health team for nearly two years in my late teens/early 20's so I really hope that information could be shared to the assessors because I was treated in the exact same building that I will be assessed in for autism.

I now and again wish my parents had kept documents/reports from school professionals/medical professionals who investigated concerns about me when I was around that age as well. I had no idea until later on in life that a doctor/school professional had ever looked at me for Autism/Asperger's when I first started full time schooling back in the 90's. 

If my parents still had my health visitor book (red book) somewhere that would be something. 

Thanks for that. I think I have still got some school reports from my years in secondary school. I was assessed by school/medical professionals and considered to be on the spectrum as a young child but I don't think there is a paper trail I'll be able to find on that as it was 27/28 years ago. Either way no formal diagnosis was made back then. 

In terms of the school reports I've read the common themes were....'needs to put their hand up more and ask for help' 'needs to contribute more to class discussion/group discussion'  'lacks confidence'. 

Thankfully there should still be computer/paper records of my time under a local mental health team when I was treated for severe depression and social anxiety disorder. Which I now increasingly feel was caused by living undiagnosed with autism. I can't be certain of that but to go through CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy...I'll put it just incase) and medication and yet still feel that I'm struggling and somethings not right shows that potentially the treatment wasn't going to work long term and there is something more underlying. 

Indeed, good call.  Give them any and all reports like this too.  I had a number of MH exist letters stating treatment was unsuccessful and in a round about way blaming me.  I gave them all that, and in hind sight that must have been informative to them because all the reasons it didn't work would have been obvious to the assessors were to do with my autism and they had in fact been trying to treat the wrong thing.

My mom kept my first report from a shrink, I saw it for the first time 5 years ago, until then i Had no idea something like that happened

SO it went like that:

when I was about 5 in kindergarden, at some point I did undergo a psychological assessment, though I do not recollect seeing any doctors at that time, or anyone telling me that it will be happening today, or anything like it

I was regular visitor to a nurse (broken head, and such), so I was able to tell them apart

report said

A difficult child, incorrectly developing speech and social interactions, acting with anger when questioned (questioning usually was  this: a bigger boy coming and trying to snatch a toy I was playing with)

Yes, luckily I still had all mine from the 1970s.  Lots of comments in there about not mixing and not relating to other children, difficulties concentrating (probably when in shut down).  Mentioned the spelling over and over again consistent with my dyslexia diagnosis.

I still had my teenage diaries too, which was pretty informative.