- Re: 's New Diagnosis

[Guest guest]

" How did they exactly get that diagnosis? And what does it

mean? "

They listened to what I had to say about him and asked some

questions. They had in another room with this guy working

with him in different ways. And there was one of those mirrors where

the psych could observe and hear everything. I guess they spent 2

hours with him. And with me. We covered any/everything from birth

to now! They have certain criteria that they are looking for with

him.

" It's interesting that they pointed to his scores as important.

Annie's verbal and performance scores were 25 points apart too,... "

I had always read that the " spread " between those scores was

important but I can't say " why. " Something like a 20 pt spread?

Supposedly it points to " something. " Even with , the school

said he has learned to compensate for his weak areas so apparently

they are not a problem, per the school. (I'm undecided; TEACCH says

it is a problem)

" And she had one area (visual auditory learning ) in which she was in

the 8th percentile (grade equivalent of 1.4 !!!!!). "

Yeah, it sounds terrible, huh? I must have had a " look " on my face

when she said 8 yrs old in that one area as she said " I'm not saying

that your son is mentally retarded.... " He had scores about that low

in other areas too. I'll be glad to get that sheet back if they'll

mail it to me.

" I thought that high functioning autism and Asperger's were basically

the same thing? Guess not. "

From what I've read, some people consider it the same, others not.

And this doctor differentiated due to the " age " of 's

communication difficulty or something. I took it that otherwise it

would be Aspergers. I'm not sure though. " Age of onset " apparently

means a lot, prior to a certain age, etc. And, as I said, I

disagreed somewhat about her perspective on his speech/communication

difficulty at age 3. Heck, all my kids had the difficulty, 'cept

Randall wasn't so bad. " I " was that bad at that age.

" And one more thing - how can his diagnosis be good for one year

only?? I don't get that. "

I don't either, I hope it's in the report. I THINK perhaps it might

be because they (autistics/Aspergers...) can progress enough that

they can " outgrow " the diagnosis. But in one year?!

" So where do you go from here? Is this a diagnosis you can take to

the school and get more accomodations? "

Funny, now I don't know what to do for sure, but I did want the

diagnosis & confirmation of my suspicions. I think that to get

supports needed for that I will have to inform the school.

High school is so much more reading and all. I can't blame

everything on OCD unless I make up some OCD stuff for . Yeah -

" uh, he couldn't get to class on time because he has to do his little

ritual at his locker so nothing bad will happen, so you can't give

him detention, ever!... " instead of " he's just so disorganized it

takes him a while to get the right book, work, etc. " or " he didn't

hand it in because it was contaminated that day. Now it's not.

Here, don't count it as late " instead of " he's just so disorganized

and he actually didn't realize you wanted it turned in and it also

really took him 3 days to get the one assignment done because his OCD

was distracting him so much, " which they would never understand.

They all seem to have heard of " contamination " and " ritualistic "

OCD..... Nah, guess I can't blame it all on OCD but it's a thought!

Later!