Who did your diagnosis for either ASD or ADHD

[Anonymous]

I feel like we have made mistakes ....

[Anonymous]

Dr. Shapiro (both).

[Anonymous]

DS- NIH, Stephen Mott (Georgetown, he is no longer there) - ASD
DD - Dan Shapiro, Kennedy Krieger - ASD, ADHD, GAD

[Anonymous]

ADHD - NIH/NIMH
ASD - KKI (Dr. Menon, along with a fabulous speech pathologist)

[Anonymous]

Dr. Dan Shapiro. Why do you feel like you have made mistakes?

[Anonymous]

PP here, Dr. Menon was our doc as well, I bet we had the same speech therapist as well!

[Anonymous]

OP - what do you mean you feel like "you've made mistakes"?
Mistakes in who diagnosed him? or in waiting too long? or barking up the wrong tree?

[Anonymous]

NIH ruled out ASD for two kids and diagnosed ADHD in oneof them (the other kid hasn't been tested yet by them)
Dr. Chuck Conlon (dev ped) ruled out ASD for both of them, diagnosed ADHD in one them (the other one continues to be 'watched')

[Anonymous]

A psychologist.

[Anonymous]

NIH would not accept our DC; diagnosed ADHD by Dr. Lisa Efron at Children's

[Anonymous]

Thanks. We have a kid with a lot of intersections. He is now 9 and having some increased troubles in a mainstream private school. We reinitiated testing and questions were probably how to distinguish possible ASD or Aspergers more likely from ADHD from mood disorder. Probably did testing with wrong person. Then took him to NIMH who said wont rule on or off spectrum but you have to treat mood first. Anyway we are assembling a team now -- speech/language, psychologist and soon a psychiatrist. Question is whether school fit is sparking moods or something internal to him ... lots of autistic mannerisms but does not quite fit criteria

[Anonymous]

OP - you're right to question whether or not the environment is causing his behaviors. He's in school for 7-8 hours, and if the environment is "toxic" to him - one would expect that he would react negatively....wouldn't you?

Many ADHD behaviors look like ASD behaviors, and there is a fine line btwn the two, so you must have someone who is an expert in both and can spot the differences. And keep in mind, at the end of the day it's just a label. Treat the symptoms and not the label, and you'll start to see him make strides.

My ADHD DS was in a catholic school in kindergarten. The environment was SO negative that he started to show some spectrum-ish behaviors, the minute we got him out of the environment it became quite clear that we were not dealing with ASD, but with ADHD and expressive/receptive language delays.

Your team should include a developmental pediatrician and top notch psychiatrist!

[Anonymous]

NP....any recommendations for a top notch psychiatrist?

[Anonymous]

I went to two bad ones, then gave up. sorry PP.

[Anonymous]

NP here. Seem like it is very hard to find a good child psychiatrist. All of the ones we were referred to weren't taking new patients. The ones who had openings had them for a reason. We are now going the developmental pediatrician route for meds and will see how that works...