Kimberley is five years old. She has been struggling to make friends at school, is very passive and isolated and has started refusing to go to school. Kimberley has been referred for multi disciplinary assessment by her GP. Her parents have been concerned about Kimberley for a long time but felt for a long while that she would ‘grow out of her difficulties.’ Kimberley has just been through the diagnostic assessment process and you will be talking to her parents about her diagnosis.

Strategies

• Be very sensitive to where the parents are at in terms of how they view Kimberley’s difficulties.
• Talk to the parents about Kimberley’s strengths as well as her difficulties.
• When you talk about Kimberley’s diagnosis, try to also talk in general terms about the fact that understanding Kimberley’s difficulties is a very good starting point for finding the most appropriate ways to support her.
• Make sure you give the parents some clear information about where they can find further literature that might help them.
• Give the parents information about local support groups and other possibilities for support, such as EarlyBird or Early Bird Plus, for example.