Potential High Functioning Autism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Pp, I know you are a frequent poster, and I am so glad your son is doing well. But your descriptions of your son always confuse everyone and your explaining how extremely well he is doing and advanced and brilliant and social honestly, I think, make all the other parents of special needs kids feel like crap. Your kid sounds very smart and a little quirky. Exercise some of those empathy skills he's learning in social skills to realize that this is not even close to most parents experience and stop bragging. It feels a little braggy. I know your son was diagnosed and I'm not questioning your services but it sucks to be asking s question about a kid with severe needs and have you pop in and be like - well my son with no issues who is amazingly smart and social happens to have Asd ADHD didn't get seen until later because it's so mild and has an amazing iep. Just like, we get it, you're amazing. Stop. But that's just me.

Plus 1 million!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the opposite view. I find this PP's posts very refreshing, open and honest. If you're going to point out all the positive things she (or he) has had to say about her son it's also important to bring up the fact that this that this child went through a NIGHTMARISH time a few years ago with horrible behaviors and the school recommending private placement. This is why this child has an IEP with so many hours. She has been very specific about the interventions that worked and the ones that did not and her theories about why. This is a success story about how well a child can do with the right supports and what I get from this is hope.

Please don't be dismissive of her child's challenges until you have been in her shoes. Everyone here has gone through good periods and bad periods and if this PP's child is in a good place now and will continue to be so for the rest of his life I'm really happy for him and happy to read about it on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Pp, I know you are a frequent poster, and I am so glad your son is doing well. But your descriptions of your son always confuse everyone and your explaining how extremely well he is doing and advanced and brilliant and social honestly, I think, make all the other parents of special needs kids feel like crap. Your kid sounds very smart and a little quirky. Exercise some of those empathy skills he's learning in social skills to realize that this is not even close to most parents experience and stop bragging. It feels a little braggy. I know your son was diagnosed and I'm not questioning your services but it sucks to be asking s question about a kid with severe needs and have you pop in and be like - well my son with no issues who is amazingly smart and social happens to have Asd ADHD didn't get seen until later because it's so mild and has an amazing iep. Just like, we get it, you're amazing. Stop. But that's just me.

Plus 1 million!!!!!!!!!!!

I have the opposite view. I find this PP's posts very refreshing, open and honest. If you're going to point out all the positive things she (or he) has had to say about her son it's also important to bring up the fact that this that this child went through a NIGHTMARISH time a few years ago with horrible behaviors and the school recommending private placement. This is why this child has an IEP with so many hours. She has been very specific about the interventions that worked and the ones that did not and her theories about why. This is a success story about how well a child can do with the right supports and what I get from this is hope.

Please don't be dismissive of her child's challenges until you have been in her shoes. Everyone here has gone through good periods and bad periods and if this PP's child is in a good place now and will continue to be so for the rest of his life I'm really happy for him and happy to read about it on this board.

I don't find her posts that way at all. She carefully constructs this presentation of his issues, and skips over the parts that make him autistic -- which is why other posters often chime in that he doesn't sound autistic. Also, just because you solve a problem in second grade doesn't mean it's gone forever, particularly with ASD and ADHD. And for someone so "high functioning" he's getting a lot of SpecEd support.

She constantly pushes the false view that ASD is no big deal, and that a simple IEP can solve all of your child's problems, as it did for her son. That is not the experience of any IRL person I know whose child is on the spectrum.

[Anonymous]

Why do you need a specific diagnosis, OP? You are treating the symptoms, and that's what matters. There's no need for a label, which may limit your child.

My child had "issues" but no diagnosis because I did not want one. I didn't see the point. She changed constantly, and I thought a diagnosis would force her teachers to see her a certain way and think that she couldn't do things, when she could do them with a little support.

My DD is now in college and doing extremely well. She still has some issues with organization, but she's improving. Had I labelled her, she may not have come as far as she has.

I'm not suggesting that you do nothing, OP. But I don't think you need to put your child through a big long expensive evaluation only to find that there's no "label" you can paste on your child in the end. That "label" may last only a few years anyway. Why do you need it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you need a specific diagnosis, OP? You are treating the symptoms, and that's what matters. There's no need for a label, which may limit your child.

My child had "issues" but no diagnosis because I did not want one. I didn't see the point. She changed constantly, and I thought a diagnosis would force her teachers to see her a certain way and think that she couldn't do things, when she could do them with a little support.

My DD is now in college and doing extremely well. She still has some issues with organization, but she's improving. Had I labelled her, she may not have come as far as she has.

I'm not suggesting that you do nothing, OP. But I don't think you need to put your child through a big long expensive evaluation only to find that there's no "label" you can paste on your child in the end. That "label" may last only a few years anyway. Why do you need it?

The school may need a 'label' or diagnosis to provide services in the future. Some schools have the space and resources to provide some social skills support to a student without an IEP but most cannot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I don't find her posts that way at all. She carefully constructs this presentation of his issues, and skips over the parts that make him autistic -- which is why other posters often chime in that he doesn't sound autistic. Also, just because you solve a problem in second grade doesn't mean it's gone forever, particularly with ASD and ADHD. And for someone so "high functioning" he's getting a lot of SpecEd support.

She constantly pushes the false view that ASD is no big deal, and that a simple IEP can solve all of your child's problems, as it did for her son. That is not the experience of any IRL person I know whose child is on the spectrum.

She's talked about his obsessive interests, which include elevators, and him hitting his special needs teacher. I think that's pretty darn honest. She has never said the IEP has magically changed him from a child with ASD to one who does not have it. She has said it has helped him be happy at school which is all we want for our children.
I don't know why we can't all agree that autism is a spectrum and that it has a very different effect on different children. We don't know of any biological markers for the condition so right now all clinicians have to go on is behavior and this child's behavior, from all PP has said, was pretty severe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm not suggesting that you do nothing, OP. But I don't think you need to put your child through a big long expensive evaluation only to find that there's no "label" you can paste on your child in the end. That "label" may last only a few years anyway. Why do you need it?

In all honesty, insurance coverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school has been sensitive to my reluctance to screen him again, and volunteered to provide services regarding socialization (not one to one or anything, but group socialization classes), because that seems to be the only issue for now.

OP, I agree you could take a wait and see approach for now but you need to ask yourself why do they want to screen him again? What are they seeing that you are not? Schools, IME, are incredibly reluctant to do any screening and provide any services so the fact that yours is falling all over itself to offer you this stuff gives me pause. It makes me think that there may be issues, not necessarily HFA but maybe something else, that you don't see because you have less experience in spotting differences than teachers.
I'm all for avoiding labels if you can but if I got this kind of feedback from my school I would be concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a Montessori school so the teacher will be the same until kindergarten. He changes teachers in 2018 when he begins 1st grade. Teacher pushed for eval for reasons stated above. It is more of a "just in case" testing which Id be all for but my gut is telling me to slow down.

Am very curious about other diagnosis he might have, but I think they would only be testing him for ASD. Could they suggest some other diagnosis? Is the Bayley test inappropriate for ASD diagnosis?

Op

I know a fewf kids who did not get diagnosed with ASD with the Bayley scales at a young age. A few years later, when they were expected to be more verbal and interactive, someone ran ADOS and they got diagnosed with HFA or what probably would have been Asperger's in the past.

[Anonymous]

I feel like there are a lot of Aspie parents posting here!! So much emphasis on a precise diagnosis.

In my experience, a developing child is a moving target. Diagnoses come and go ASD symptoms are so diverse. Professionals seem to want to stick kids in categories when most don't fit.

I also worry that no one here seems to mention biomedical intervention. My child recovered with biomedical treatment in addition to speech, social and other therapies.

Yes, we were told our DC would never recover, ASD is "permanent" blah blah blah. Lies all from doctors and other therapists who dismiss what they don't know.

If you saw my kid, you'd never know DC's history.

[Anonymous]

What are biomedical treatments?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm not suggesting that you do nothing, OP. But I don't think you need to put your child through a big long expensive evaluation only to find that there's no "label" you can paste on your child in the end. That "label" may last only a few years anyway. Why do you need it?

In all honesty, insurance coverage.

We were very careful not to have an ASD diagnosis because our insurance did not cover treatments for autism.

The identical treatments were covered for things like speech delay, motor issues, etc. But if they were labeled ASD, no coverage at all!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm not suggesting that you do nothing, OP. But I don't think you need to put your child through a big long expensive evaluation only to find that there's no "label" you can paste on your child in the end. That "label" may last only a few years anyway. Why do you need it?

In all honesty, insurance coverage.

We were very careful not to have an ASD diagnosis because our insurance did not cover treatments for autism.


The identical treatments were covered for things like speech delay, motor issues, etc. But if they were labeled ASD, no coverage at all!!

Really? Could you please explain about this more? What kind of insurance do you have? Did the evaluators say your kid had an ASD and you said, "please don't conclude that because it will be bad for us insurance-wise?" Sincere question, how do you affect the diagnosis?

[Anonymous]

That sounds like it happened a long time ago. These days many states have autism mandates that cover more services for ASD than for anything else.
It sounds like PP manipulated the parent interview which is possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I don't find her posts that way at all. She carefully constructs this presentation of his issues, and skips over the parts that make him autistic -- which is why other posters often chime in that he doesn't sound autistic. Also, just because you solve a problem in second grade doesn't mean it's gone forever, particularly with ASD and ADHD. And for someone so "high functioning" he's getting a lot of SpecEd support.

She constantly pushes the false view that ASD is no big deal, and that a simple IEP can solve all of your child's problems, as it did for her son. That is not the experience of any IRL person I know whose child is on the spectrum.

She's talked about his obsessive interests, which include elevators, and him hitting his special needs teacher. I think that's pretty darn honest. She has never said the IEP has magically changed him from a child with ASD to one who does not have it. She has said it has helped him be happy at school which is all we want for our children.
I don't know why we can't all agree that autism is a spectrum and that it has a very different effect on different children. We don't know of any biological markers for the condition so right now all clinicians have to go on is behavior and this child's behavior, from all PP has said, was pretty severe.

Ok, thank you for posting that, because I don't remember seeing any of those posts. But posters shouldn't rely on the SN board's institutional memory. For the newer posters like me, her posts do read "0 problems, then Dx at 4 due to interactions with peers, then 0 problems again."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you need a specific diagnosis, OP? You are treating the symptoms, and that's what matters. There's no need for a label, which may limit your child.

My child had "issues" but no diagnosis because I did not want one. I didn't see the point. She changed constantly, and I thought a diagnosis would force her teachers to see her a certain way and think that she couldn't do things, when she could do them with a little support.

My DD is now in college and doing extremely well. She still has some issues with organization, but she's improving. Had I labelled her, she may not have come as far as she has.

I'm not suggesting that you do nothing, OP. But I don't think you need to put your child through a big long expensive evaluation only to find that there's no "label" you can paste on your child in the end. That "label" may last only a few years anyway. Why do you need it?

Why do you think that? Because the services would have negatively affected her? Or because of the stigma?

It sounds like your daughter had been doing well, but many kids don't without appropriate therapies and supports. I'm happy my kid has a label that helps him get school services and the right therapies.