Anon post please: a close family member of mine is almost 5 years old and starting school soon. He has been diagnosed with a global developmental delay and queried other diagnoses. The issues he has is he is aggressive towards younger sibling, he is not toilet trained and still in nappies often soiling himself, he can only say a few words, doesn’t look you in the eye, doesn’t respond to questions or if he does he will say gibberish baby babbling type words, he has funny hand movements and repetitive behaviours. He finds it very hard to make friends. The issues started at 2 years old so years before sibling came along. His parents have taken him to a paediatrician who said he needs referral to a psychologist but so far nothing has been done. He has had speech therapy for a few years with little improvement. The initial query was perhaps autism but was told as he is “very happy” it doesn’t fit? As he is starting school next year the pressure is on from school to have him assessed and any funding in place, support and the like. My question is where do the parents start? Is there a service locally that could help, diagnose if needed, refer, offer therapies ect... (Newcastle NSW). the doctor he has seen seems to be not helping & now things have come to a head right before kindy. Any advice or words would be appreciated.
5 Replies
Many kids I know who are autistic are happy. You don’t have to be unhappy to be autistic.
My starting point would be contacting Aspect for advice. Also a look at the Autism Awareness Australia website. There local GP can also help with referrals.
They can go privately through a private paed and child psychologist who does assessments. It will cost thousands.
Or they can go publicly by getting dr to refer to paed who will then refer on to the right specialists. It is free and can be a year on the waiting list.
Try to help your friend relax as it takes time and as long aa they are doing something, thats the best they can do. They are probably feeling very stressed about their child starting school and wanting everything to be as covered as can be. Remind them that the school can support from day one with the info and resources they have, diagnosis or not, they can meet the needs of the child.
We have a private paediatrician. It isn't thousands with medicare rebates. And I wonder whether the delayed diagnosis is because it was causing an issue in multiple areas of his life given he's not at school yet etc. Global developmental delay often gets changed to autism in time. It's kind of a holding pattern diagnosis. If they want a psychologist involved they might be wanting to rule out cognitive delay/learning disorders through psychometric testing. It might be valuable getting that before going to another paediatrician. Otherwise, a child psychiatrist can look at both.
Basing an autism diagnosis on the happiness of a child seems odd. A girl I know who's on the spectrum is the happiest kid I've ever met (she has trouble understanding and empathysing with other emotions though - such as anger and sadness).
I'd start with a new doctor for a fresh opinion.
To start with the child needs a paediatrician who can make referrals to the help services he needs: occupational therapy, speech therapy and possibly physical therapy.
He should be enrolled in either a special school or the special education unit of a mainstream school.
My son had s support person at kindy and she helped him to communicate his needs, settle into his routine and toileting etc...
You don’t need a diagnosis of autism to access the services he needs, but if he shows autistic tendencies (rocking, meltdowns, involuntary movements, fixations on some things, etc...) autistic teaching methods at school might help.