There are always waiting lists for neurologists but their medical diagnosis and recommendation letter are much better to have when you are trying to get services.

Actually, that's not too bad. Here in NJ, out of the 5 Developmental Pediatricians, 3 of whom were in the same office/had the same waiting list, one office told me their waiting list was 15 months long, and the other one couldn't put me on the waiting list at all because they had over 200 children on it! We broke down and went the private route and shelled out the cash for a private evaluation whose waiting list was only a month long. It's such a shame that it's so hard to get appointments with specialists, especially now when autism has become such an epidemic. Early Intervention is stressed as such an important part of success for these kids, but just to get them diagnosed in order to be treated is such an uphill battle.

I took my son to a Developmental Pediatrician before he was evaluated by the Board of Education for placement in their preschool program, and I have to say, the Developmental Pediatrician wrote us a letter to hand to them that got him all the services he needed. I've heard a lot of horror stories about people having to fight for services, and this cut all that out. With this letter, they were unable to deny him anything and he was placed rather quickly. And therapists (in the state of New Jersey anyway) are not authorized to officially diagnose neurological or medical conditions, such as autism. A formal diagnosis will most likely open up pathways to have some services covered by insurance, such as speech, occupational, physical therapy, etc. Much of the time these therapies are only covered by insurance with such a diagnosis.
Good Luck!

I went to one for.mine and my son was refered to a reginal center who then sent in their dr who also said yes and he has been bummped from early intervention to a day class if u can start with a reginal center they giv lots of help

We love our neurologist. Our wait was about 3 mos as well.