2 Year old Daughter has first Assessment for Autism next Tuesday.

Not long to wait till you can ask for feedback, hope you get the results you have been waiting for. 

It has been very frustrating as she has become more violent and having more meltdowns since our last appointment so a lot has changed and as she knows how to hide certain traits from strangers, teachers and her school friends. She is a different child at school compared to when she is home, so its hard for them to make the diagnosis from what they observe. The pediatrician said my daughter was 6th in the queue to have a school assessment so we still have to wait and we wont know when they are going to the school as they are going to do it then contact me after. 

Hi! I will ask for feedback at her appointment on the 28/08. I don’t have the feedback from any of her appointments yet EXCEPT that the woman who did her ADOS did say that she thinks that she does meet the criteria for ASD. My understanding was that they need to go through all 3 of her assessments before giving ‘official’ feedback. Luckily they were able to do her 3 assessments in quite quick succession. It must be frustrating for you having to wait so long?

How long between her being assessed at nursery till you get the feedback. My daughter is 5 and we have to wait till after the holidays for the paediatrician and psychologist to assesses her at school as she will be starting year 1. I have the report from her first assessment and they did say she does have social communication difficulties but cannot officially say autism spectrum disorder until the school assessment.

CADU phoned me back this morning to say that they've been through all of litlun's assessments and she has an appointment with her Paediatrician on the 28th of August at 11:30. Unfortunately, my eldest took the call as I was driving so I need to phone them back on Monday to establish whether the appointment is with her Paediatrician only or for the MDT meeting!

To be fair, the services have been great with my daughter, I'm just impatient! How are you feeling about your son going through the Assessment process?

Hey

we just waiting for my son to go through this but looking like October or November time. I know he has autism and agreed with his paediatric I must admit all services involved have been great.  

I know, tell me about it! I will be on the phone first thing tomorrow! They haven't banked on me in full on perseveration mode... I will keep bugging them until they sort out my daughter's MDT appointment! I had to do it when her Paediatrician review was 6 months late, sometimes it's the only way!

Thank you xx

Blooody part timers lol.

Hope you get some feedback soon, thinking of you. xx

So it is two weeks today since litlun had her ADOS and still we have not had the appointment through for the MDT meeting! I telephoned CADU this morning to enquire but their answer machine message told me that they only work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays! I have left a message but I'll call again in the morning. I am getting VERY restless waiting for this appointment and to find out if she gets an ASD diagnosis or not!

Yes, they’ve been extremely quick, especially once they started the assessment process. Though one of my friends, who’s son is autistic said that once they start the assessments, they get them all done quite quickly. The waiting list was a lot shorter than I expected!

I’m mostly ok with things and I imagine that I’m a lot less bewildered by my child probably being autistic than a non-autistic parent would be. I know that autism isn’t the end of the world and I did a lot of research about autism in the few years before my own diagnosis so I’m reasonably knowledgeable about autism and the assessment process. I’d be very shocked if she doesn’t get a positive diagnosis as she’s like a mini me in so many ways, a lot of our behaviours mirror each other, beyond what you would expect from just the usual child mimicking their mum’s behaviour, it goes deeper than that. But it’s also natural as a mum to feel a little bit sad that my child has a disability. I personally have thought for a long time that she has autism and something else, she’s on the waiting list for genetic testing which will look to establish what the something else is, if anything. She already gets a lot of support, I get DLA for her and she has SEN premium funding so she gets a 1:1 at Nursery to support her to be able to join in with all the activities. But having an autism diagnosis should unlock autism specific support.

Thank you. I appreciate that xx

I'm impressed with the speed at which CADU are diagnosing your little lady. It must be hard for you but just think once you know what you are dealing with, i.e autism or not or something else, she will then get the support she needs from an early age, she's lucky to have you as a mum because i'd imagine a lot of parents wouldn't have been so swift to notice the signs.

Thinking of you, you know where I am if needed. xx

So, little lady had her ADOS assessment this afternoon which is the end of the assessments per se. We just need to have the Multidisciplinary Team meeting with all professionals involved in her care and the CADU team to go through all assessment outcomes and reports from the various professionals that are or have been involved in her care to find out if she gets the autism diagnosis or not. The ADOS assessor said she believes that she does meet the criteria but we will see. Having an uncharacteristically slightly tearful few moments writing this!

2 years!! That's a long wait! If your son has delayed speech then maybe ask your Health visitor to refer him to the Speech and Language Therapists (SALT), I know that in many areas including mine SALT won't actually give them any input until they're 3! But they can assess before the age of 3 and you would also (hopefully) get offered pre-SALT short courses that are run at many children's centres and he'd be on the waiting list. Maybe also call the helpline on this website to see if they can offer any helpful advice?

https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/about-us/contact-us.aspx

We've literally just visited a health visitor who has referred us to have a diagnosis. We've been told a 2 year wait.

Is there anything we can do to be more proactive? 

I know! I'm impressed by how quick they're getting it done!

So no time lapse between asessments and no waiting. That's good

Thank You! If positive then it would be the first proper diagnosis for my youngest, she's also 2. She does already have the interim diagnosis of Global Developmental Delay though, it's just a case of working out what's causing it. Due to her presenting symptoms and my own Autism they referred her for Autism assessment, she's also having genetic testing done when she gets to the top of the list! CADU is the Child Assessment and Development Unit in my area, it may go by different names in different areas. This is an NHS assessment. How far through the process have you got with your 2 year old son?

Thank You! I woke up really out of sorts yesterday morning, I hadn't felt stressed previously but obviously I was! I've recovered now though! At least things are moving forwards!

:-) Thank You! CADU are obviously 'on it' because when I dropped litlun at Nursery this morning I was amazed to find out that she's being assessed at Nursery today! I'll ask them later how it went. 

Good luck Kitsun. Is this the first diagnosis for your child? I had never even heard of CADU although we are just starting the process for our 2 year old son. Is this a private diagnosis?