Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, i am new here and this is my first post. I have a son who will be 3 in 2 weeks and we are going through the process of having him assessd for ASD at the moment. He was seen by the community peadiatrician 2 weeks ago and she did a bit of assessment with him and said it looks likely he is on the autistic spectrum and has sensory issues but sad he is very young for diagnosis as some of the signs he shows may improve as his speech develops. She is now reffering him to her senior but said he is still very young for diagnosis? Is that right? It seems to vary in different areas. How old were you or your child when diagnosed? I had a report sent from speech and language after the two appointments he had with them, 1 at the clinic and 1 at home. Speech and language will be working with him in the school nursery when he starts next week and also the educational phscologist. His behaviour is VERY challenging at times, especially when out and about and i feel if he had a diagnosis i would be able to cope with things better as i could say to people 'he has a diagnosis of x, y or z. But at the moment people stare as they think my son is badly behaved and we are bad parents and it winds me up so much.
Re-reading this post I notice it’s 13 years old. This autistic child is now an adult, well very close to being an adult 16. He could be posting on this very forum. Would be interesting to know how things panned out.
A lot of autism is about social skills. It’s really difficult to assess peoples social skills if you can’t communicate with them. So if you have a child with delayed speech or other issues of a similar sort it’s difficult to stick the label autistic on it reliably as opposed to lots of other things that can cause delayed speech. And of course if your child is just too young to have fully developed speech that presents the same issue.
that’s my limited understanding of the issues with diagnosing autism in young children. Not a medical professional that’s just what I’ve heard.
if you’re 3-year-old is chatty and communicative, even verbally precocious, I would imagine he probably could be assessed for autism by three years old.
subjectively in my personal opinion that’s a good time to get a diagnosis. Just before a child goes into school. Since schools have to cough up most of the funding for special needs kids nowadays they have a vested interest in labelling it as bad behaviour or just being dim. That can make it difficult to get that initial referral for diagnosis through the school.
Hi rainbow mum ,
This is common ..my son is 4 and has been diagnosed with adhd/autism? by the community paed also , he is awaiting other appointments for further assessments to determine either high functioning or aspergers .. this process can take over a year ..at the begining of the process i was completely hung up on diagnosis and i think it is part of the acceptance process .. now 5 months on its helped us understand our son and helped us to make his life easier as we try to see the world in the way that he sees it ..we have adjusted our life style continually for him ..he is now back in a buggy and he wears headphones and listens to his music when he is stressed out ..and yes on numerous occasions we have had to say "I'm sorry my son has autism " .. I have learned that humour helps and laughing off all the little mad things that our son shouts , says or does outside , but thats just his way of coping ..and we all deserve a medal for the patience that we show our children ..
sanders x