Help with Late diagnosis.

Hi Highland cows00, thank you for sharing with the online community. You may find our page on Assessment and diagnosis helpful to better understand what happens during the assessment process: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis/assessment-and-diagnosis.

I hope this helps!

Best wishes,

Anna Mod

Totally! I 'passed' but I wish I had taken more notes with me.

Thank you! I think I’m just scared as I don’t know what to expect in the initial assessment. I think it’s just I want to make the most out of the appointment seeing as I’ve waiting for so long! Does that make sense? 

Expect the Spanish Inquisition...because Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

I'll get my goat.

This is just my opinion, but I would gather as much related information about yourself and keep it in a word, or phone document. You can't be expected to remember all this stuff on the day, but somehow they do.

Stuff like fitting in, social skills, bullying, special interests, sensory things and any anecdotes that support these. These still keep coming to me months after my assessment, so start keeping notes now. If you have any school reports that you think may back up your potential diagnosis then dig them out.

If you have an ADOS-2 test after the initial assessment (probably weeks) try not to prepare for that at all because you'll think yourself in knots. As far as I remember the 'tests' themselves are not what they seem on the surface (not scary though!!) so you probably need to be yourself. If you prepare you may not react as you would normally.