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visiting GP for a referral for assessment

Elli

Hi

I am new to the community but have been reading others people's experience when trying to get a diagnosis for their children.

I have read lots of Iinformation on the NAS website and a book that was recommended to me, the more I read the more convinced I am that our 10 yr old daughter is on the spectrum and meets a lot of traits for Aspergers.

When you go to your GP to talk about a referral what % of traits do they look for them to meet before looking into a referral? 

Both my husband and I feel she meets at least 75-80% of the traits listed.  We have even researched the traits in females as they can be slighlty different to males.

If the GP agrees to a referral who is it that they refer to for assessment?

Thank you for any help or advice for this part of the process!

Elli

Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Some further thoughts on the diagnosis.

    Diagnosis is not a process of identifying ASD traits and then totting them up to come to a score. Diagnosis is about assessing communication and social skills. If a diagnosis is arrived at then it means that there are significant impairments in communication and social interaction skills. This is a matter of judgement but the process is backed up by standardised tests and questionnaires that try to measure where someone is on the autistic spectrum. If you score significantly highly enough and far enough away from 'normal' then the doctor will take this into account when amaking the assessment. The words "significant" mean that an opinion is necessary from an expert of some sort. Autism, like the mental disorders that you need to distinguish it from, is a hard thing to diagnose or to even identify by someone who is not an expert. General practitioners and many other health professionals will just not have come across it in enough detail to be able to have an opinion of their own.

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  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Some further thoughts on the diagnosis.

    Diagnosis is not a process of identifying ASD traits and then totting them up to come to a score. Diagnosis is about assessing communication and social skills. If a diagnosis is arrived at then it means that there are significant impairments in communication and social interaction skills. This is a matter of judgement but the process is backed up by standardised tests and questionnaires that try to measure where someone is on the autistic spectrum. If you score significantly highly enough and far enough away from 'normal' then the doctor will take this into account when amaking the assessment. The words "significant" mean that an opinion is necessary from an expert of some sort. Autism, like the mental disorders that you need to distinguish it from, is a hard thing to diagnose or to even identify by someone who is not an expert. General practitioners and many other health professionals will just not have come across it in enough detail to be able to have an opinion of their own.

Children
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