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Daughter awaiting neurodiversity assessment - How to inform her?

mozland

Hello, our 9 year old daughter is currently recieving therapy from CAMHS for anxiety. She has only recently returned to school following a period of 9 months where she was unable to attend. Every day is a struggle for her, but she is trying her best to reintegrate.

CAMHS are progressing with a neurodiversity assessment which may or may not result in a diagnosis for her.

We have been advised by CAMHS that our daughter needs to be informed & consulted with in order that she is aware of this assessment. We have been told that she also must consent to this being undertaken & that she has the right to refuse/opt-out.

We understand why she should be engaged in this process, so that any outputs do not come as a shock to her, however we are also concerned that informing her may cause her undue stress or worry as we know her mind can go into overdrive. We are keen for the assessment to proceed as we believe this will help inform & possibly understand her better. We have no preconceptions over any diagnosis, indeed we are completely open-minded as to any potential outcome.

We want our daughter to feel empowered by this & not fearful of where this may lead, however we're worried that her being made aware of this assessment could make her feel very self-conscious. We're also concerned that should she decide not to proceed with the assessment that we may be left with a lot of unanswered questions relating to her anxiety issues.

Genuinely unsure how we approach this for the best.

Any guidance or advice would be gratefully recieved from those who have been in a similar situation.

Thanks!

Parents

  • I don’t have experience with children but I can only say that getting assessed is a good thing at least it was for me. I was only diagnosed at age 25 and I wish I had known sooner. I think it really helps to understand yourself better and therefore take better care of yourself. There is nothing wrong with being autistic in my opinion (though it can be challenging sometimes as the world isn’t built for us). The world is full of autistic people- so many more than we realise- teachers, doctors comedians etc. but many of us are not openly autistic. I am a scientist and I believe that being autistic and being detail oriented and quite analytical make me good at my job and I wouldn’t change it. I’m sorry I realise this doesn’t really help in terms of explaining neurodiversity to a 9 year old but I just wanted to share that for me being diagnosed was a great help. 

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  • I don’t have experience with children but I can only say that getting assessed is a good thing at least it was for me. I was only diagnosed at age 25 and I wish I had known sooner. I think it really helps to understand yourself better and therefore take better care of yourself. There is nothing wrong with being autistic in my opinion (though it can be challenging sometimes as the world isn’t built for us). The world is full of autistic people- so many more than we realise- teachers, doctors comedians etc. but many of us are not openly autistic. I am a scientist and I believe that being autistic and being detail oriented and quite analytical make me good at my job and I wouldn’t change it. I’m sorry I realise this doesn’t really help in terms of explaining neurodiversity to a 9 year old but I just wanted to share that for me being diagnosed was a great help. 

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