Both this year and last year I have had children start in my new entrant class showing a range

of autism related behaviours but with no diagnosis. The mother of child 1 was very aware, even before he started school, that there were significant differences between the social and communicative behaviours of her son and his peers. I was able to develop a good relationship with the mother during her sons pre-school visits and through visiting him at kindy. This was supported by regular emails with photos of her son taking part in classroom activities and of the 2 of us together at kindy. I had been told by the Early Intervention Teacher that mum was very much against going down the track of getting a diagnosis so I was careful not to bring this subject up. Instead any concerns she shared were worked on collaboratively using my past experiences and her knowledge of her child. After the first month at school she asked me if I thought her son had ADHD. I explained my belief that this may be present alongside autism. Her response (and I may have shared this on another forum already) was one of relief and sudden release from the guilt that all this was due to bad parenting. I encouraged her to seek a diagnosis before we made a referral to RTLB as I felt this would give us a greater chance of getting some funding. Since then I realise it would have been preferable to have started both processes (NZASD Guideline recommendation 3.1.1). However, I was able to supply the family with resources to read, mainly from Sue Larkey as I felt she offers a number of strategies that would support this family and are written in a way that are easily accessible to families. I also had a lengthy talk to the father when he dropped his son at school one morning. Up until then he had been in denial about his sons behaviours which had understandably led to tension in the home. However, after describing some of the characteristics of ASD he quickly recognised this in his child and asked for advice on how to deal with these concerns. The wait for a formal diagnosis was long, drawn out and very frustrating for all concerned. We spent many evenings emailing each other to share these frustrations along with new strategies we were trying and numerous successes at home and at school. As part of the diagnosis process I was asked to complete a screening questionnaire. Once the diagnosis of ASD with ADHD was received the referral for RTLB, for which I provided as much evidence as I could, was put in place and a few hours of teacher aide time was secured. The family were helped by a number of agencies resulting in a variety of support being secured including respite care funding. The mother and I attended 2 workshops put on by our local branch of Autism New Zealand Inc. and through these she has become friendly with another family in a similar position. One of these workshops was on transition and we worked hard together to make her sons transition to the next years class a smooth as possible as well, as developing a transition document specific to our school. Even though this child is no longer in my class I have still attended his IEPs and am still in contact with mum, especially when things arent going so well for her. Child 2 has an older sibling with autism and had been discussed at the schools AGSN meetings prior to her joining my class. Although her behaviours were very different from her siblings I was becoming increasingly concerned that she may be on the autistic spectrum. This concern was shared by an RTLB who was observing another child in the class. I carefully approached mum after school one day. Whilst we sat on the deck watching her family playing we talked about the older sibling, I had done some work with him last year and then we talked about child 2. Mum shared that she was the most difficult of all her 5 children but believed that she would grow out of it. She explained she was happy about this as she did not want to go through the same experience as she had done when the older sibling was being diagnosed but she did not offer any further explanation. However, both my own concerns and those of the RTLB led to us asking for the familys permission to do an RTLB

referral, to my relief mum was fine with this. At the end of Term 1 I met mum and dad for a regular parent teacher interview but this became very much focused on their negative experiences with social workers and MoE staff during their older childs diagnosis. They reported they had felt their parenting skills were being questioned and they referred to finger pointing going on once the agencies involved knew that dad was Maori. I was very careful not to pressure them in anyway and when they asked me what the advantages of a diagnosis would be I heard myself explaining how it would aid in getting support and funding , knowing full well that the older child has been turned down for funding on more than one occasion. We talked a lot about their daughters strengths in art and design and the positive changes we have seen due to strategies put in place so far. After what was clearly an emotional meeting they left to consider their options over the holiday. Unfortunately they do not have internet and do not respond to phone texts so I am left wondering and waiting to see which path they choose. The RTLB was going to fix up a home visit, which I was able to explain to the family and share with them my trust in this professional who I have worked with for the last 2 years. I have explained the families past experiences and have offered to accompany the RTLB to this meeting if she thinks this would be beneficial. My immediate response to this forum question was that as a teacher my role in the diagnostic process is to provide evidence to other agencies and professionals. However, having considered the two cases described above I realise my role is far more complex than that. As teachers we are recognisers, guides to understanding the diagnostic process, providers of support and ASD education for the family, advocates for the child and family, providers of evidence, a link between the family and other agencies, someone who families trust to do the best for their child and finally someone who is there to listen to them through what can be a difficult, confusing and frustrating process and to remain there for them far beyond this.