Son had eval at school - pursuing official diagnosis - prep?

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Our son has had an evaluation at school that doesn't provide an official diagnosis, but did report findings of mild autism. We are setting up an appointment with the same Dr. that provided me with my diagnosis - but we aren't quite sure how to prep our son (age 6) for the appointment. We haven't shared with him concerning what the school report detailed, as he just thought he was getting to leave class to take a few 'fun' tests, as he put it.

Did any of you prep your child for an appointment like this?

I would just tell him he's going to take some more fun tests. Tell him it will be similar to the tests he took at school, just in a different place. Tell him there will be toys with which to play. At the evaluation, the hope is that he'll behave as he normally does, so you don't want to make too big a deal of it.

That sounds like a good idea. Hopefully once we set the appointment, we can figure out what to expect during his evaluation.

That's pretty much it.

If he thinks the tests are "fun," that's good news for him, and you, and the evaluator.

It's waaaay better if it's "playing with these guys" than "looking for problems." One of them is chill. The other is going to put even a six-year-old's back hair up, and that's NOT what you want.

I told my son, at 6, something a little bit different: "I'm already pretty sure you've got a special kind of brain. I'm just not sure what KIND of special. I don't know if it's more like a tree or more like a rocket ship, but we need to figure it out so we can help you learn to use it properly. These guys helped me figure out how to use my brain, and I think they can help us figure out how to use yours too. So we're going to go play with them. Just hang out, and be you, but please try your very best to do everything they ask you to do, because that will help them figure it out faster." Something to that effect (though I HOPE it was shorter!!).

Eh, it worked. YMMV.

That is great advice - I wish somebody would tell me my brain was like a rocketship!

I told my son we were going to a person who would help me pick the best school for him. (There is an open enrollment lottery in our area so he knew I had been visiting schools to decide which ones to request.) Then I described some of the things he might be asked to do -- hop on one foot, copy a drawing, name a picture, solve puzzles, and pick out pictures to answer a question, etc.

My guy is 4 now and 3 when he was diagnosed. I went with the fun test route. I told him we were going to meet some new people who want to play games with you. Now I say doctors, before I didn't because he always thought of doctors having probing items(ears, eyes, height, weight) and he really hated that, even more than the shots. So I only called his gp a doctor.

I think at 6 rocket ship brain is an awesome idea.