Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all
we finally got an appointment with a community paediatrician at the start of February for my 12 year old daughter who we have suspected is on the spectrum. We spent 1 hour with the CP where my daughter was uncommunicative and teary. The CP then asked me to come in separately to my daughter so we could speak more openly. This took place about 2 weeks later. In this meeting after further questioning regarding my daughter she said that her suspicions were that my daughter was on the spectrum and she would proceed with the ASD assessment. Nearly 3 months of chasing up I speak to her again and she tells me she will be sending us a letter confirming the diagnosis and that a formal assessment is not required. Are we being fobbed off here? My understanding is that autism is diagnosed by a multidisciplinary team? Any help would be much appreciated.
Seems a bit quick. Could just be they're super busy & your daughter was so obvious they thought they'd save on the whole process. In that respect, you could say you got lucky. I'd assume that they took your daughters case to the team & discussed it prior to coming to the decision. My youngest was almost 12 at dx, but it took almost 6 years to get to that stage, so while I'd be puzzled at the speed & asking for a full report, I wouldn't be overly concerned if you gave a full & frank history. When my daughter had her ADOS she only saw one person, but it was discussed by the team, so I take it this is what they mean by multidisciplinary. My eldest was 18 at dx & saw 2 people for her assessment meeting. Don't even know if it was an ADOS or not, but in this instance, it wasn't taken to the team & she was dx there & then. They were quite angry that she'd been failed when I'd first had her seen 10 years ago & she was fobbed off as "just shy". I'd be interested to know others opinions on this too.