Can a Nurse provide a Autism Diagnosis? (Adult)

I asked for a meeting with the diagnosis team as I was unhappy at the second draft report and ended up seing the consultant and one of the team. Basically I'm unhappy I will only get a diagnosis if they do a developmental interview with my parent. So I told the consultant.

I asked the consultant to go over my childhood medical records instead, which they seemed happy to do. I'm also getting an EQ test, ADHD Test and a Schiziod personality test. It all seems a bit daunting. Apparently I will also get another appontment by August. 

It seems very strange I was going to be discharged (it was in the draft report) until I had a moan about it.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Finally had the chance to read the book that Longman put on a couple of day's ago. I certainly agree it's very usefull and I like the way it does not overcomplicate issues, it's easy to read which is always good.

In my report it mentioned that I engagaged in gesture more so when I was interested in topic and it was the only time they could get eye contact from me. It also mentions that I have poor intonation but not monotone. So when I read about these topics on this survival guide it makes me understand my report even less. 

I will look further at the dyslexia info this evening when I get another chance to sit down at the computer without distraction. 

There are distinctions though between dyslexia manifest in adults and childhood dyslexia. These links are for childhood dyslexia.

It was thought at one time that people got over dyslexia just like they supposedly grow out of autism. In reality people compensate. Also they learn what is expected.

Adult behaviour tends to pivot more around the memory issues. I don't know the details of this because it was a grey box area for me, I occasionally got involved in supporting students with dyslexia.

The memory issue can be a series of numbers or remembering the beginning of a sentence by the time they get to the end, which fits what goatworshiper is describing of struggling to read without being able to introduce inflexion in drama.

Does NAS have a link for adult presentations of dyslexia?

Hi Goatworshiper,

I am sorry to hear that nobody has talked you through the draft or the report itself. Information processing in general is the data analysis you do in your brain with all the info that your senses collect. The british dyslexia association (BDA) and NHS sites might be helpful: 

1) www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/.../dyslexia-research-information-.html

2) www.nhs.uk/.../Introduction.aspx

According to BDA: "Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed."

Verbal processing speed: "Verbal processing speed is the time it takes to process and recognise familiar verbal information, such as letters and digits" (www.nhs.uk/.../Introduction.aspx)

It is also mentioned that: "BDA acknowledges the visual and auditory processing difficulties that some individuals with dyslexia can experience, and points out that dyslexic readers can show a combination of abilities and difficulties that affect the learning process."

Visual processing is how you analyse info that you collect with your eyes, i.e.

• Visual Discrimination
• Visual Sequencing
• Visual Memory
• Visual Motor Processing
• Visual Closure
• Spatial Relationships

Auditory processing is analysing and making sense of info you collect with your ears:

• Auditory Discrimination
• Auditory Memory
• Auditory Sequencing

check the website: www.ncld.org/.../information-processing-disorders

I've just given this link on another thread, but will hopefully manage to get it in correctly: www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/.../survival.pdf  "Coping: a survival guide for people with aspergers syndrome" by Marc Segar 1997. The title will usually find it quickly.

The reason I've offered this up is the way it is written, which might help Goatworshiper resolve the tricky issues of whether or not it really applies. Marc Segar's text, while 17 years old now, was written very much along the lines of day to day living.

Most books labour the triad of impairments and talk about symptoms in a heavily evidential way, giving examples that are often extremes. For most people this is disquieting and often not directly familiar - yielding the reaction can't be me then, I haven't got it anything like that bad.

Marc Segar just gets on with it and talks about day to day living issues.

I consulted this early on after my diagnosis and found it helpful. But there wasn't much help around then. The number of books since, I've tended to forget it, but a number of people on the forum lately have been seeking basic reassurance and ideas about getting round everyday problems, and it struck me this might help.

Like electra I too had the problem of both parents being deceased and had to rely on evidence of a sibling.

Thanks for the reply. So it seems as tho they have followed proceedure (be it on the cheap).

My cognitive assesment says IQ is average (102). Abilities not evenly developed, significantly weaker on processing speed compaiered to perceptual reasoning albeit possesing preserved verbal abilities.

I need someone to talk me through this, I have no idea what it means other than I'm a bit slow processing things. I knew that anyway, I'm dyslexic and reading takes me an age. When people talk to me it takes me a long while to digest info. Is this dyslexia or something else?

The first draft of the report claimed I engaged in a role play game. I then emailed then to say I didn't, I can remember because this is a major problem for me. I couldn't grasp drama at school etc. As a adult I re-sat English and I got an A or A* in every area other than the drama element which was significantly lower ( I think I scraped a C) because I just read of paper and offered no interaction with others. 

I started getting assesed in Aufust 2012 and a draft turned up last week. I havn't seen any of the team since August 2013. Pretty dissapointed with the full scenario other than the cognitive assesment. 

My mum and dad would never tell anyone about any problems I have had, so they wouldnt be reliable. Would cause friction too. My Grandparent are dead. 

If I havn't got ASD that's fair enough, but I still have problems and no one is helping grumble grumble. I'm just finding the autism team to be obstructive.

Hi

I saw a consultant psychologist for the first interview when the decision was made to refer me on for a diagnosis. The diagnostic interview itself was carried out by a nurse practitioner. It lasted a bit over an hour and the resulting report was of no use to me apart from stating that I am autistic. No cognitive or other tests were done and I've had to work out for myself the areas where I have problems, such as working memory.

The relevant NICE guidance says:

1.2.5 A comprehensive assessment should:
be undertaken by professionals who are trained and competent
be team-based and draw on a range of professions and skills
where possible involve a family member, partner, carer or other informant or use
documentary evidence (such as school reports) of current and past behaviour and
early development.

So knowledge of your early years is not mandatory for an assessment. It wasn't possible in my case as my parents have been dead for a long time.

I do find the insistence on having anecdotal evidence of you as a child puzzling. Its like seeing someone lying in the road, surrounded by smashed glass and a wrecked car and then saying that you couldn't say they'd gone through the windscreen because you didn't see it happen.

I hope you get this sorted out and make them see sense.