hi, my son turned 3 last month, he as 2 older brothers who both have s & l disorder, 1 being very severe, statemented and in a s & l unit!

Any way me and my husband has always thought my 3 year old may be on the autistic spectrum but after our 1st appointment with the peditrican he said because his older brothers had a speech and language disorder thats what he would have too, but he still referred him to portage and we were already on the waiting list for home service with speech therapy.

Portage adviced me to request a statutory assessment for him, which i did and was agreed so every1 involved as been writing their reports for the LEA and visiting him in the private nursery which the peditrican adviced me to put him in!

Anyway yesterday morning we had a meeting with the educational psychologist and he basically said he agreed with us that my son possabily as autism and that next time we see the peditrican to tell him that the ed psychologist is on our side!!

But the strange thing is i feel like he as been diagnosed, which i know he asnt!! but for the 1st time a professional is agreeing with us and 1 i didnt expect would has all the professionals involved with my 5 year old thought he could be autistic but THIS same ed phscologist battled with them to say he wasnt!! my head is numb, i feel like crying n i just feel like im walking around in a dream land!! and this is with just 1 professional agreeng with us and before a diagnosis!!

The educational psychologists visit to my sons nursery was a very last minute thing and he just went in to observe him, can the ed psych really actually say to us that he thinks our son is autistic and does this mean the fact is he will more than likely be diagnosed with autism at some point since he as said this to us?

Also yesterday afternoon speech therapy came to our home and did a play based assessment and he did really well he linked all the correct things together ie, giving doll a drink, putting the brush to the dolls hair how ever this didnt last long at it was all soon just put on the dolls head, but we soon noticed he ad formed a order, 1st he used the cup on the doll, then the plate then the brush then the comb etc etc then started back at the beginning and did it in the exact same order over and over again!

Which the salt said was symbolic of autism and she couldnt believe how good his memory was to remember the order that he was working in!! , he also towards the end of the assessment layed on the floor and started holdin g the cup etc right up to his face having a really detailed look at the items turning them slowly in his hands as he looked, she said this was also seen in lots of children with autism!!

I feel so relieved and happy that someone is finally seeing things from my point of view but cant get this numb nervous feeling out of my head and tummy!!
xx

Hi Kerry. Why are you feeling numb and nervous - is it because your mothering instincts are being proven as being right? We suspected Jack was autistic and had to insist on a referral to a paedatrician to get an opinion. She never confirmed that he had ASD but referred him for all sorts of tests then we saw a diffrent paed 3 months later who specialises in ASD who actually confirmed it to us - it was a relief, I can tell you - we thought we were imagining it!! Once you get the final diagnosis you kind of know which road to take to help your son. Jack likes to study things in detail and yes it's a trait of ASD - but then so is a lot of other things and it's such a wide spectrum that your son may not tick all the boxes - but there again, he won't need to.
Good luck honey. Hope you get the diagnosis in writing soon - just keep being 'Mum' you won't go far wrong. xx