Diagnosing

Hello, I wondered if anyone that have already had children go through a diagnosis if you could help answer a few questions. I spoke to a health visitor regarding my concerns, and she came to my house to meet my daughter she was here for 30-45 minutes and told me straight my daughter doesn't seem to have autism. I feel awkward because of course they know what they are doing but my daughter matches a lot of signs/symptoms alongside some more in depth ones, i've spoke to multiple people who also suggest she may have it and they also have autistic children and all say there children did something similar to something my daughter may do. Did you have to wait long? Did you have to fight for them to consider a test/diagnosis? Do your children show some signs but also some others that would make you think not? (Sorry if i may have worded some wrong, i really just want some help/support for my little girl)

Show your support

So firstly they won’t go near children for an assessment until around 4 because the early ages is too young for development. I waited 3 months to get a diagnosis however I know people waiting up to 2 years! Yes I did have to fight constantly for him to get a diagnosis however I was lucky having a lot of professional support etc health visitor and nursery staff. So my son is extremely social which does not fit in with most autistic children and people always say ‘ he don’t look autistic’ which used to annoy me and now I just laugh it off. Please also note it’s a lot harder to get a diagnosis for a girl for some odd reason. I wish you the best and hope you get the outcome you need x

@Leah Thankyou, i've known some people that don't until 4 but saw others were diagnosed at 2. It's defo hard because they don't take me seriously and i just want support if that's the case. They said becuase she can make eye contact she's not and i said yeah but there's lots more other signs she shows other than eye contact but it's a lot and i think it's just frustrating. I do support her because her mind works very differently to a lot of other children and i know you don't compare but in some aspects i had to to see where she was at and to see if these signs were just an age appropriate phase but it's definitely making me go crazy! .

Girls are more difficult to diagnose

"Experts believe family, teachers and primary care physicians may miss the signs because autistic females tend to camouflage their symptoms" So if you have your suspicions push for second opinion and document everything. My boy from referral 1 month and 2 weeks we get date for assessment what is 15.04 . So around 3 months from referral.

I absolutely knew when my son was 18 months old that he was autistic, sadly they try to fob you off a lot like it’s all in your head but we didn’t give up we pushed and pushed until they listened to us finally they did and he had several assessments over a years period. Then we got the appointment to see the paediatric dr who also assessed him, she called us back a second time after about 3 months then diagnosed him with autism he was 2.5. If you really think your girl is autistic then keep pushing the sooner the diagnosis the better so she can get the right support

@Sam thank you so much! i'm definitely going to keep pushing! if i didn't have my eldest girl i honestly don't think k i would've picked up on it so soon! xx

@Shannon can I ask what other signs. X