Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, my child is now 11yo and really struggling at secondary school. We have seen a specialist when she was younger but just said “she has tendencies but not enough to diagnose. As the years have gone on my child has become more and more ‘different’ to other children. Every doctor I’ve seen has pushed us away with excuses of it’s normal child behaviour, to anxiety to normal teen/school stress. I haven’t a clue where to go or what to think anymore. Is my child on the autistic spectrum or just weird and quirky?!?…..
I have looked at all your suggestions and the tests are all for age 16+ she is only 11 so not sure what test for her to take. I actually took the raads test and it came back 190, im not sure what that means but my main focus is to find a test for my daughter and get her the help she needs
Analyse them. Look for routines, repetitive behaviours and deficits with social interaction. Anything you find normal or quirky might not be the norm for other children, and take this information back to the GP.My daughter was quirky. I didn’t realise she was autistic until she was 10 or 11. No one listened to me, and we were sent from pillar to post for 6 years before she got referred. The assessment was poor, and geared towards boys. She didn’t get a diagnosis.
Two years later I went private. She got her Autism diagnosis at 17, along with ADHD and Dyspraxia. Funny how the NHS youth diagnostic team said she didn’t have any issues.
You need to keep on fighting until you get answers.
Yeah otherwise you don't qualify for it.
The AQ50 has 50 questions, that is what the number indicates. The cut off for RAADS-R is a score of 65, 65 or over is an indication of autism.
It might be worth consulting with the SENCO at school - there is assessment that can be done at school to give a good indication of whether your child should be on the pathway to diagnosis, and, rights and wrongs of this notwithstanding, doctors can be inclined to pay more heed to the opinions of another "professional."
50 isn't even autism you need to score above 60 on your RAADs to classify as having autism.
I would get your child to do online autism tests - AQ10, AQ50 and RAADS-R - it will give you some indication of autistic status. Also, if scores are within the autistic range, they will give you ammunition to use with clinicians.