Children's in Rockville for Autism Diagnosis

[Anonymous]

I contacted Children's in October last year about getting DS evaluated b/c of issues at school: does not play with his peers, etc. They called finally offering us a date in March. At this point, DS has a diagnosis of Asperger's from a developmental pediatrician and a psychologist hired by his school. Seen by an OT, PT, speech. I'm tempted to keep the appointment at Children's simply for another opinion since it's covered by our insurance and to get OT, PT and speech services there.

Any experience with Children's will be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

The Gaithersberg office? Make sure you are working with the dedicated Autism division. We had one bad eval. there and one spot-on eval. We pushed for the second one because the first one was so far off. We saw a different set of professionals the second time. I highly recommend Dr. Anthony.

[Anonymous]

We have been there with our DC in November and are in fact returning in March.

Overall it was very fair and the specialists there were caring and gentle. There were quite a few things that I disagreed on, but overall quite a positive experience. I would also recommend Dr. Anthony

[Anonymous]

OP: Thank you both. We will keep the appointment and ask for Dr. Anthony.

[Anonymous]

OP: Followup. We went to the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders in Rockville and saw Dr. Atmore who is a child neuropsychologist and Marsha Harris, SLP. We already had a diagnosis of Asperger's from our developmental pediatrician and the educational assessment done by DS's school.

I felt it was very much worth going and worth the wait. They administered ADOS and ADI-R. Dr. Atmore explained the results very thoroughly and we will be getting a written report. We will be going back. DS was made very comfortable and enjoyed "playing", a very nice place for children overall.

[Anonymous]

Also, the center is completely covered by our insurance so we will only have to pay the copay.

[Anonymous]

Forgot, their diagnoses agrees with our developmental pediatrician and the school: ASD - Asperger's. DS has strong social interest and motivation and strong oral language and play. He is on the spectrum due to his rigidity, repetitiveness and obsessive interests.

[Anonymous]

We just went there too, an overall very positive experience

[Anonymous]

I'm so glad you had a good experience, OP. Marsha Harris was also involved in my child's case and she is fabulous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forgot, their diagnoses agrees with our developmental pediatrician and the school: ASD - Asperger's. DS has strong social interest and motivation and strong oral language and play. He is on the spectrum due to his rigidity, repetitiveness and obsessive interests.

I know this is an old post but if you see this, what happened after his diagnosis? Does he do any type of therapy? He sounds just like my son.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgot, their diagnoses agrees with our developmental pediatrician and the school: ASD - Asperger's. DS has strong social interest and motivation and strong oral language and play. He is on the spectrum due to his rigidity, repetitiveness and obsessive interests.

I know this is an old post but if you see this, what happened after his diagnosis? Does he do any type of therapy? He sounds just like my son.

DS got an IEP for social/communication issues, PT, OT and speech/social skills for an hour, once a wk. We tried private OT but stopped b/c it focused on SPD more than fine motor issues and SPD wasn't causing any issues at home or school. In preK, the school provided a social skills group during nap time which met 4x a week.

The PT was dropped in K but I am going to ask for another eval for gross motor issues. DS is a rising 2nd grader.

At this point DS's hypotonia and developmental coordination disorder causes more issues than the ASD. He has no behavior issues at school/home and gets along well with his peers. Is fully engaged in the classroom and recess, happy and has friends. Still at the same school, a language immersion charter. Does great academically and in the target language. The school has been wonderful and DS was placed in an inclusive classroom with a bilingual sp Ed teacher who was also his case manager in K and 1st.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the update. Are his repetitiveness and obsessive traits still an issue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the update. Are his repetitiveness and obsessive traits still an issue?

He still has stims and obsessive traits but they don't interfere with his functioning at all. For instance, he has no problems with transitions but even when he was first diagnosed they didn't cause issues.

Currently, he jumps up and down when he's super happy and excited. Occasionally finger postures.

Is obsessed with Minecraft and Star Wars.

[Anonymous]

Boy they have really moved the autism goalposts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Boy they have really moved the autism goalposts.

?