Published on 12, July, 2020
My 8 year old son may have ASD. So far I have managed to keep school meetings and discussions about the topic from him. However we are going to the drs for a referral next week and I am scared that hearing me detail all the problems he is having may sound like criticisms to him and may knock his confidence. He is generally very aware of things and I don’t want him to feel something is wrong with him. I’m tempted to let the school refer him so we can avoid the drs issue but have heard that going the GP route gets a quicker referral. Can anyone advise? Should I tell him about the referral? If so how? Does my son even need to come with me to the GP? Is a GP referral quicker? Thanks x
Hi
It's v tricky..my daughter's ten and l have not told her although she tells me she feels different. I'm trying to get diagnosis quickened up as CAHMS have said it's definitely looking that way. And her behaviour has regressed. Good luck .
I completely understand I was worried about that to which is why we started discussing it with her in a light way so she knew that people were there to help not judge I tell her all the time that I love her quirks it's what makes her so individual (this helps when other kids poke fun) we found it just stops her trying to hide things as differences can be positive x
Hiya thanks for replying. I may try that idea then. I’m just worried about him hearing me tell GP how he’s been observed at school and then all the things he does. I just don’t want him think that the school and us think he’s going a problem x
Hi My daughter is 8 and we have been going backwards and forwards with gp and school for referral for about 5 years, I am also reluctant to fully disclose our suspicions to her yet until diagnosis has been made . At home the behaviours and problems get referred to as her "quirkiness" it just seemed gentler to us and she likes it, so whenever we are going to so gp or someone else regarding we have a talk beforehand explaing that we are just going to chat about her quirks and that she has done nothing wrong. So far this has worked for us gp, senco, school nurse and support worker know that I don't want asd raised with her yet and have also started using the same phrasing.
I know it sounds silly but it has also made my daughter more open to telling us what she is struggling with as she sees it as normal to tell me now