This is not something i have studied inn great detail but i have wondered whether I am on the spectrum of both these conditions. I don’t suppose i will ever know now that the NHS is all but privatised. It’s not like i could go for a test anyway i think the waiting list is about 5 years long for a diagnosis in my local area and the last time i asked my GP to be referred for something it got flattly refused because the local CCG do not fund anything that falls outside of the catchment area. However, they did not make any other suggestions for anything that could help me in the local area because the service i was looking for only exists in one hospital in the whole of the UK.
Anyway were here to talk about Autism, ADHD and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. When i worked as a nursery nurse I did have contact with some children with both of these conditions but not many of them would have had a diagnosis as i worked mainly in early years. It is difficult to diganose some conditions in early years because you have to use child development knowledge to diagnose a lot of conditions.
If you take Ehlers Danlos syndrome Hypermobile type, where there is no genetic test yet, as they have not found the gene responsible, the only way to diagnose this condition in early years at the moment is to see what age the child walks at. Normal age range for walking is between 8.5 and 20 months. The later a child starts to walk signifies that there could be a physical development impairment. I myself walked at 18 months and have had lots of issues with my physical development. My daughter on the other hand walked with the help of furniture at 9 months and freely at 11 months. But there are other signs like sitting in the W position (pictured below).
If you were to see these signs in your child at these ages then it would probably be best to request an appointment with a rhematologist to get a formal diagnosis. However you should be aware that this is still an underdiagnosed condition and it is still quite rare for children to be diagnosed until a parent has been diagnosed. When i had my diagnosis appointment i was asked about my daughter and i didn’t think she had the condition as there were no signs like the late walking and the W sitting. However, she has been encouraged to stay as physically active as possable regardless. It is also possible that she could have the gene (that has not yet been identified) and is capable of passing on to any children she may have.
Now i don’t really know a lot about Autism and ADHD so i am just going to leave a few articles for you to refer to. I have kind of given up on trying to get anymore diagnoses for myself because everytime i ask for something it is refused. But before i go both Autism and ADHD is on the list of treatable conditions for medical cannabis.
links to use
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7711487
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.803334/full
PDF from The Ehlers Danlos Society
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395621004258
Philippa Fleming Activist 
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