after assesment

I know I'm not the only one this has happened to, and I would like to know why properly trained and good teachers are not all compaining about this, because you would think they'd want to dissasociate themselves from the ones who are like this, why do good teachers defend untrained bullying people who shouldn't even be working with kids?

I agree.  My youngest is always complaining about the two TAs that work with her being mean to her and she explains what's been said clearly and I know it's not made up and the school defend them and say they denied it.

"ASC children frequently mask behaviour at school (there is a stickied post on the forum about this) and let it all out at home.  "

Thanks for posting that, I know this first hand, my son will hold things in until he gets home then it all comes out with a big bang when he gets home, and then it can be hours until he calms down, thank God he isn't at school any more, the Special School was a lot better than mainstream but even at Special school there were problems, no-one to go to to compain, one of the teachers, he wasnt even a teacher just a classroom assistant was so horrible to the kids, he's been sacked now thank God, but my son was trying to take GCSEs and I didnt dare complain, other parents did though, I feel so selfish, I wanted my son to get good qualifications and was too scared to complain, the horrible man was mocking the kids and winding them up, he would up my son the day before his GCSE exam, and my son was so upset it took 3 hours to calm him down. But yes, they DO hold things in until they get home, until they get somewhere safe enough to explode.

I dont want to complain about my sons special school as there were some fantastic teachers, but why do some people that aren't even teachers seem to get special treatment and shielded from discipline? It wasnt the teachers it was just a few special assistants, not even proper trained teachers.

Spot on.  This was my point about our CAMHS.  How, in a clinical situation (which in other words is not normal and is calm and quiet and in the presence of a stranger) can they expect a child to behave in their normal way?

Most children are reserved with strangers but and ASC child will have heightened inhibitions and anxiety and will be very undemonstrative of obvious behaviours.

For such a short period of time too, they cannot hope to tell.  They saw my daughter for 45 minutes and an assessment is supposed to take several hours.  I mean you couldn't make this up!

It's always a fight getting what your child needs unfortunately, but you are right to fight for him until he gets it.

thankyou for ur coments as a parent i know deep down i will never give up because if i did that id be giving up on my son and i will never do that. and yes your right my son has had 11 yrs of having to keep it together in situations that he doesnt find easy that now he masks it really well and he has only been seen for 50 mins out of 11 years and i have struggled to get him to the level he is at today and i know he doesnt show hi true self or struggles easy. his peaditritian has known him for the last 9 years and he only showed concerning behaviors last december so part of me isnt surprised they didnt see that he is quite different to peers of his age group.

Don't give up!  Ask for a 2nd opinion via the GP.

Most CAMHS are utterly useless when it comes to assessing for ASC as they are more used to dealing with mental health issues.

The very same thing happened to my 12yo and she is due to go out-of-area for reassessment which I pushed for after CAMHS let us down in the same way.

I know damned well she has Asperger's, ASC children frequently mask behaviour at school (there is a stickied post on the forum about this) and let it all out at home.  CAMHS are incompetent if they think you can be a part-time autistic.

My daughter missed the scoring by 2-3 points on the ADOS-2 as well.  Do you know  why?  Because it is only 77% clinically reliable in high-functioning autism cases as it was researched on classic autism cases!  Here is the proof: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2864898/

CAMHS frequently treat ASC assessment like a tick-box exercise and if the numbers don't match up on the clinical tool they don't diagnose.  They do not understand it's a spectrum and they do not have any expertise or experience to know what a high-functioning child looks like so they rely on the ADOS completely - which NAS and all credible instruction says not to*.  Clinical tools are optional, they aren't even an essential part of the ASC assessment process, and they are meant to be used in conjunction with a full history and they are meant to listen to the parents!  We are experts in our own children.

There are also alternative clinical tools and in tricky cases where the child masks well, they should use more in-depth ones and consider referring onwards if they are at all unsure.

I have heard of people getting told "your child doesn't have a problem at school so they don't need a diagnosis" !! How is that CAMHS (a mental health service) if they fail to recognise that a child may behave at school but be dying inside and wreak havoc on their family to release their feelings about school.

They should have the humility to recognise their lack of expertise and refer to a specialist centre rather than just failing to diagnose.

I've also heard of quite a few people being told by CAMHS "some autistic traits but not enough for a diagnosis".  What tripe!  Like I said it's a spectrum!!!

*http://www.autism.org.uk/About-autism/Autism-and-Asperger-syndrome-an-introduction/Gender-and-autism/Women-and-girls-on-the-autism-spectrum.aspx

The difficulties in the diagnosis of girls and women arise if clinicians continue to use the narrow definitions set out in the International Classification Systems. It cannot be stressed enough that diagnosis and full assessment of needs cannot be carried out by following a checklist. Proper assessment takes time and detailed evaluation is necessary to enable a clinician to systematically collect information which not only provides a diagnostic label, but more importantly, a detailed profile of the person.

(although this is about females the message is the same regarding how assessments should be conducted).