My son is showing some of the 'red flag' signs for ASD and has been referred for further assessment but it seems like it could take months to diagnose and yet everything I read says that early intervention is key. I obviously don't want someone to misdiagnose but is it quicker to go private and get assessed and can you even go private?? I'm in Scotland xx

hi i am also waiting for an appointment for my son to be assessed for aspergers we have already been to speak to someone at CAHMS,don't know if you have CAHMS in scotland ,they have now said that they think he has aspergers and they have referred us on to the asd team but have warned us it will be a lengthly process,know what you mean it is really frustrating waiting for his appointment as my son is really struggling at school and the school are saying they cannot give him much extra help until he has been statmented,can't really offer much advice but hope you get some help soon

That's not so good, I really feel for you, my son is just going to be turning 2 so I think we're in a easier position because he hasn't hit school age yet. We have CAHMS, I think that might be the next stage after his second assessment. I had a call from the speech therapy unit today just to tell me that the waiting list is months long (which I knew) but she asked me about DS and after I told her everything she asked to see him to make sure he got a proper ASD referral (I don't think she trusts the HV). She has also put our names down for a parenting speech class that starts soon. I feel a bit more positive today, yesterday when the HV's were round I felt like they thought we were making things up but the Speech Therapist really listened. I hope your wait isn't too long xx

The wait list is long for any help with things like speech and physio here too. And additionally they don't generally diagnose ASD quickly where I live - which I agree with. My son had his first assessment at 18 months due to lack of vocalizations (no sounds or babbling) plus he had gross motor delays - and they assessed him as having Global Developmental Delay. This is kind of a general description of the delay, but more assessments are needed over a longer period of time in order to really understand what is going on. His first assessment was almost a year ago now and he has come on really well in the past year. At 18 months they were anticipating an ASD or PDD-NOS diagnosis in the future, but now they are thinking it is something else more related to muscle tone and/or motor control function but they still aren't sure.

I don't know what kind of support is available in the UK, but here his diagnosis of GDD made us eligible for all kinds of additional help which has been great. I also attended a class for parents about encouraging speech in toddlers with a delay and it was FANTASTIC. I think it was one of the most helpful things I did as it gave me tools to help with my son every day. It also helped me to understand how he was communicating. Speech therapy is good, but what I do with him every day makes way more of a difference. I also did signing and picture cards with him. xx

Hey girls,

SUN- your son sounds exactly like my daughter. She has said to have global developmental delap, but no real diagnosis, they say she has traits of autism but not enough to diagnose yet, she has bad coordination and delayed gross/fine motor skills. She finds it quite difficult to communicate feelings and her speech is more that of a 2-3 year old, she is 5! She is currently being statemented and she has help from LABS at school 3times a week,which is very 1-1 so she copes then, but without it she struggles a lot and is very behind with her school work I.e reading. Its frustrating that there's not more help out there. She's currently seeing SALT,OT,physio,ed psych and paed!x

I've started trying a little bit of signing although it's hard to get him to look a lot of the time (he's not signed back yet). I like the idea of the picture cards, I remember you saying about the cereal boxes Sun but did you take any pictures of just the food in a bowl? Or is it better getting him used to the boxes/jars of jam etc? At the moment he doesn't have a way of telling me he's hungry, I just keep offering food throughout the day. xx

Hi ladies my oldest child who is 11 has ASD + ADHD 2nd child may have ASD too.
From what i know it takes so long to get a diagnosis because they need a lot of evidence to build up so results of diagnosis is accurate as possible.

We just started with the cereal boxes because one day he showed us the picture from the box out of the recycling! So he kind of gave us the idea (we hadn't heard of picture cards before that). From there we started taking pictures of his favourite things so that he could show us. Also with signing it took him a long time to sign anything back - maybe 8 months? But we started signing young. He only did one sign for a long time as well. He would only used signs that were motivating to him (help, open, more) and didn't use the signs for eat/drink until he was almost 2. He can say some words now. He still doesn't really ask for food, but he has started asking for water. We just offer throughout the day as well. xx

Leigh - She does sound similar! My LO actually has pretty good fine motor skills, but delayed gross motor and speech. His speech is improving now that they are doing some physio on the muscles of his mouth/tongue though! He can make many more sounds and move his mouth and eat better. For example he used to not be able to stick out his tongue and move it from side to side, but now he can. Bun is the same in regards to diagnosis though. For us it's kind of a wait and see situation. They want to do more genetic testing (they already ruled out the big ones) but I'm not sure that would really accomplish anything. xx

I just wanted to say I have been through this with my now 16 yo, He was in the "system since 2" and finally fot his pdd/asd/adhd/tourettes diagnosis at 11 it has been a really hard slog and he still has mh issues however is is sitting his A levels and has a gf he is also a lovely lovely boy and we are so proud of him he is turning into a lovely young man so different from how I thought his life would be!!!!!

Just wanted to say Good luck ladies it is soooo hard and anyone that gets through it without grey hairs is lucky!!! but it is so worth it

Thanks so much for your reply, that's really lovely to hear