With the rise of discontent regarding wait times for autism diagnoses, many are questioning whether more can be done to raise awareness.
Currently, the wait to be seen by an autism assessment team is between 25 and 28 months and in September of this year there were 227,813 patients who had open referrals. Of those, 90.1 percent of them had been waiting at least 13 weeks already.
Luckily, this one child, Arthur who is nonverbal, didn’t have to wait so long in the end. His mom, Rachel, tells us how back in 2022 they said they would not be able to diagnose him until March 2026 which horrified her.
However, it wasn’t until she met with his paediatrician that they found a way around this and in July of 2023, she received a call to say that Arthur had been diagnosed.
Rachel also thinks more should be done to raise awareness for children with autism, especially those who are nonverbal.
There isn’t enough awareness to show how to support those children out there.
Rachel
One way she believes this can be achieved is with Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices, or an AAC device. These devices help and allow for children with autism, in particular ones that are nonverbal, to be able to express themselves they wouldn’t otherwise be able to.
So he can press the buttons and he can ask for things he wants and it speaks for him.
Rachel describing how her son uses the aac device.
In order to get access to one of these devices you must apply for one, which involves being assessed by a speech and language therapist. Rachel believes these devices should be more recognised.
There needs to be the AAC’s readily available for children when they are a young age.
Rachel
Despite the harsh waiting times to receive a diagnosis and a lack of awareness, children with autism have support in place for them in schools. Arthur’s uncle, Joseph, happens to work in a school where he is currently doing a SCITT (School-Centred Initial Teacher Training) qualification and works with children with SEND.
Joseph says that the school he works at currently have a specialised programme to help deal with children who have autism.
An area for children with SEND needs to go and have those targeted interventions… but it gives them that access to a more tailored one on one support.
Joseph
He also believes that schools can still be doing more to support SEND needs children which comes down to the resources they are provided.
A lot of it comes down to the staffing as well, so having the resources and having the staff there to be able to support to the best of their ability.
Joseph
To help raise awareness for children who are nonverbal, Arthur’s grandmother Kerry, has been doing charity work. Recently she hosted a quiz night in Walsall in which they raised £877.60.
Kerry is also hosting a coffee afternoon later this month and hosting an Elvis tribute act early next year to further raise more money. All the money raised will be donated to the National Autistic Society.
