Janice New and confused

[Guest guest]

Thank you for the reply. Here are some of the things that I seem to notice with

Connor. He has a really hard time dealing with change (we just moved and it

took him 4 weeks to decide if it he wanted to stay with a twin bed with ocean

beddin or go to a full size bed with lion and tiger bedding. He has very poor

fine motor skills, he has to use pencil grips on his pencils and he knows the

process of tying shoes he just cant get them tight, holds his fork wrong for

messy handwriting ect... He doesnt have an athletic bone in his body which id a

total disappointment for dh as he is totally into sports and lettered in 3 in

school. Connor has food issues also he is very picky eater and his foods can

not touch! This is to a point where if he has mac and cheese beans and a hot

dog he would need 3 forks because he cant use the same fork for anything. He

likes hamburgers and buns but they cant be together he eats them seperate. He

does show some hand flapping when he is excited. He also

is very very emotional. He cries so easy. He is almost 9. So through reading

up on Asbergers and reading this stuff its like a light goes on. He is very

smart, his IQ test put him at 3 pts below gifted at a superiorly intelligent

category and his Assesment tests put him at above a 99.9 % in math. So here is

where I run into my no's he has friends (however would rather sit at a tbl with

a group of adults), will look you in the eye and have a conversation and likes

to cuddle. Scored above gifted level on comprehension ect... He loves to talk

however he didnt talk till he was 2 but when he did he was talking in sentances.

He also suffers from migraines and GERD because he is so stressed out all the

time. Most areas he is a perfectionist but yet cant find his bedroom floor most

of the time. Sooo in your opinion are we on the right track or should we start

looking in another direction? My cousins daughter is autistic and though she

never even considered it her son was

diagnoised with asbergers last week and he and Connor are complete opposites.

Ironically the theropist who suggested checking into it for Connor also sees

Will and hadnt said anything to Jen about it. Thanks again if you got this far.

Jodi

Janice <nascar_momma@...> wrote: Hi Jodi,

I can understand being confused, especially when trying to find answers on the

internet. I have been a special education teacher for 18 years now and I just

became aware of this disability a few years ago. My son was diagnosed this past

summer at age 11,but when I looked back on his younger years things started to

make sense. I'm not sure about anyone else, so the process I will talk about is

how my son was diagnosed. He was attending therapy sessions when I was first

asked to consider the diagnosis. I looked in to the information on the Internet

like you did and decided that was not my son. After three more people suggested

that my son might have Asperger's Syndrome, I took him for an Independent

Educational Evaluation with an examiner who had extensive experience in working

with students with AS. She completed a long interview with me, observed my son,

and gave him many educational tests. She compared all of this information with

the DSM-IV manual and found he had not only

several criteria for the diagnosis but also a LD in written expression and

sensory integration issues. She referred us to a clinic at the Children's

Hospital where the staff is knowledgable in ASD and could give him the official

diagnosis. This was done and completed at the end of July of this year.

There is no " test " for AS that I know of, but interviews with parents and

teachers to find out characteristics and symptoms.

I have found the information at O.A.S.I.S. to be informative.

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/

Please remember as you read the information on the Internet or in books or

talk with other parents that all children do not exhibit all of the same

characteristics. Sometimes I will talk with other parents and our children

sound like clones and sometimes they sound like total opposites. My son has

issues with foods and yours might not have those issues or the same issues. My

son is very literal and yours might or might not be - just depends.

Good luck!

Janice

Jodi <jodilynne74@...> wrote:

First I would like to say hello to you all. I am the mother of 2

wonderful Children Connor 8 and Kylie 5. Recently we were told

through the school theropist that she thought that Connor may have

aspergers syndrome. For me this began to make sense of a lot of

things that are day to day issues with him. However as I read the

information on the net I am getting more and more confused. I can read

10 diffrent articles and on 5 of them I can say yes,yes, yes on the

other Im like no no no. He has been refurred to a nuerologist for a

diagnoises, however we have not been to one yet. I just want to know

what Im talking about before we go in. I guess my question is how do

they test for it and what is the best site to go to if you want the

most accurate information? I also have a mmeting sceduled next week

to determine if Connor should move into 4th grade when he returns from

vaccation. Academically he can do it is his social emotional issues

that make me nervouse about the move. Thanks if you have read this

far.