School thinks DS has ASD, dev ped does not agree. Now what?

[Anonymous]

DS7 has ADHD, and even when medicated still has some behavior issues in class. Has a 504 plan where he receives some support from social worker, and we're working on getting OT for handwriting. He has a behavior improvement plan as part of the 504.

Teacher is concerned about autism, and school psychologist gave each of us (teacher, parent) the GARS-3 (Gilliam Autism Rating Scale) form to fill out. We just got them yesterday, so they have not yet been scored by school psychologist—I haven't turned mine in yet. But, teacher let me take a picture of her completed form since we had an appointment with the dev ped today. Her responses would most likely come up as likelihood of ASD.

I presented teacher's concerns to the dev ped (who has been seeing my son for several years) and dev ped doesn't agree that he has ASD and thinks it would be a mistake to pursue that diagnosis when it's not clear that it fits. I have the same concerns, especially since I'm not sure he would get much more from the school in services than he already does.

Teacher's form will be scored. My question now is do I fill out my version of the form? Even if I do and it scores likelihood of ASD, does that do anything?

This process is so confusing.

[Anonymous]

First, ASD isn't diagnosed by a checklist. If the school wants to evaluate for autism, they need to do it right or not at all. Especially since many of the symptoms that might look like ASD could easily be ADHD.

Second, your son should get the services he needs based on his needs, not his diagnosis. So don't let the school say, he needs X but can only get it if he has autism.

[Anonymous]

What does the developmental ped think i going on? I would not trust a school to make an ASD diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

This seems kind of backwards. The school should be identifying ways in which he is not accessing the curriculum, and then do a full evaluation (of ALL possible diagnoses) to see if he's eligible for an IEP. The IEP would be tailored to meet his needs, not to a specific diagnosis. The specific diagnosis is of course important for other reasons, but it seems weird that the school is suggesting in as opposed to identifying the problems he is having in school.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage. Just fill out the form. The more important issue is whether he needs and gets an IEP. Go from there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, ASD isn't diagnosed by a checklist. If the school wants to evaluate for autism, they need to do it right or not at all. Especially since many of the symptoms that might look like ASD could easily be ADHD.

Second, your son should get the services he needs based on his needs, not his diagnosis. So don't let the school say, he needs X but can only get it if he has autism.

Exactly. It sounds like he's already identified by the school has having ADHD for the 504 plan. The real question now is whether he needs additional supports (an IEP) to access the curriculum. This shouldn't feel like a fishing expedition for one particular diagnosis, but rather an overall eligibility determination under IDEA.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I should say that the neuropsych ruled out autism (though we did not do ADOS; neuropsych and dev ped did not think necessary).

Dev ped thinks DS is quiet, has some pragmatic language issues, and maybe some anxiety or other mood issues are emerging. Recommended OT to help with sensory issues that seem to be driving many of the behavior issues, and a social skills group with typical kids. Reluctant to add to meds right now, but we're going to check back in a few months to see if a mood stabilizer might help address the anxiety.

I don't trust the school to do anything either. But, I want to have a positive working relationship with them and make sure DS is getting what he needs. Has anyone ever gotten OT for sensory on a 504?

Thanks to all who navigate this every day—we are just at the start and it is so overwhelming.

[Anonymous]

OP again. I suspect the school is pushing the ASD diagnosis in order to get him an IEP. He didn't meet eligibility last year (prior to 504 diagnosis) and still wouldn't based on grades.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if anxiety came into play. If he has more trouble in social situations when he’s anxious it could come out as symptoms of ASD (eye contact, social interactions and understanding)

[Anonymous]

Teachers should not be making any diagnostic guesses. My daughter is an autism specialist in her district. She sees hundreds of kids all over the spectrum. She would never try to diagnose. I was a classroom teacher in Gen Ed for years and certainly could recognize possible red flags, but again, I would never try to diagnose. Totally inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

My son has ADHD and has definite ASD tendencies (husband's family has some diagnosed ASD members too).

However he is getting all he needs with the "Other Health Impairment" category on his IEP (which is where they put most of the ADHD kids), and nothing would change at school were he officially diagnosed with high functioning autism.

We, on the other hand, are actively trying to bolster his social skills and understanding of non-verbal cues, outside of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. I suspect the school is pushing the ASD diagnosis in order to get him an IEP. He didn't meet eligibility last year (prior to 504 diagnosis) and still wouldn't based on grades.

They are wrong. A student can still qualify for an IEP even if grades are strong.

The fact that the school is giving support from a social worker means they see that he needs supports. They can give him those supports with a diagnosis of ADHD.

http://www.wrightslaw.com/nltr/16/nl.0607.htm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. I suspect the school is pushing the ASD diagnosis in order to get him an IEP. He didn't meet eligibility last year (prior to 504 diagnosis) and still wouldn't based on grades.

What county are you in? Your school is wrong to say that your child can't qualify for a 504 plan "based on grades". It's simply illegal to say that a child must be "failing" to receive an IEP or 504 plan. There is no grade benchmark which excludes students from getting an IEP or 504. But, schools often try to pull this with ADHD (i.e. giving only a 504 plan). I have a second child who had a medical issue and qualified for a 504 plan for several years even though she had straight As. I have a child who has been on an IEP since 3rd grade for ADHD and that DS has never had a grade of C in his life. Your school clearly doesn't understand the law. This happened to us, and it was especially surprising since it was the school psychologist who was pushing the denial of a plan, and we were lawyers telling the school psychologist she was wrong! We had to go over the school psychologist's head and complain to the countywide 504 supervisor. (This is an option for you, as all counties must have this position required under the law.) Most school psychs simply don't have that much experience and also do not have very much legal training at all, yet since they are often seen as the most educated person in the room, they are often deferred to by other staff, including principals and teachers.

To qualify for a 504 plan, you need to show 1) disorder (i.e. "physical or mental impairment) that 2) substantially limits a major life activity such as reading, thinking, concentration, etc. To qualify for an IEP, you need to show 1) disorder 2) adverse impact on education (this does not have to be bad grades!!!) and 3) need for specialized instruction.

You should return the autism form screening with a note to the psychologist that (cc'd to the school principal and special ed person for your grade or school) and say that you believe that it would be inappropriate for you to fill out just one form on a suspected diagnosis. Instead, a comprehensive assessment should be done to consider all possible diagnoses, and therefore, you are hereby requesting an IEP screening meeting to determine if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that your child might qualify for an IEP and, if so, to have a full IEP team determine together what that IEP assessment should look like. (Remember, you are an equal member of the IEP team.)

At that meeting, the school psychologist will try to get you to sign a generic consent to assess form. This form doesn't usually list the specific individual tests being proposed. It usually just says you consent to educational and psychological assessment. Do not sign that form until you get more information on which tests are being proposed. This is a moment when you have leverage to make sure that the testing covers all the things that you think are issues -- not just an ASD or ADHD checklist, but a full speech and language assessment with standardized normed instruments, and other achievement testing, social pragmatic language testing, etc. In that context, you should indicate that you are willing to fill out the form ASD form the school is asking you to do (because they are also testing for things that are of concern to you).

Of course, if you can afford a private neuropsych and/or a private speech assessment, you can skip a lot of the above. Instead, once the report is done, you can write the school, ask for an IEP meeting and share the report with the school. Usually, a school psychologist is so busy that he/she just accepts the report, because otherwise they would have to do all their own testing.

FWIW, my ADHD child has pragmatic language issues; it's very common. My DS was diagnosed at a very young age with a language disorder (MERLD) that has some language symptom overlap with autism. Some people mistake all pragmatic language issues as signifying autism. Others think MERLD is what parents in denial choose to call kids who really have autism. Neither of these are true. Fortunately, my child's pragmatic language issues are fairly mild, so we never had to fight this fight, but I know other families with children who had MERLD diagnoses that did. At the time of the MERLD diagnosis (around age 5), the SPL who did my child's assessment noted "attention issues" and referred us for more neuropsych testing. By the time DS was old enough for accurate ADHD testing (around age 7), it was becoming clear that attention and executive function issues were the underlying cause of a specific learning disability that affected his language acquisition, and he was subsequently diagnosed with dysgraphia and reading disorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. I suspect the school is pushing the ASD diagnosis in order to get him an IEP. He didn't meet eligibility last year (prior to 504 diagnosis) and still wouldn't based on grades.

Well, that's a good thing, even if they are going about it in a misguided way. Don't you want an IEP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has ADHD and has definite ASD tendencies (husband's family has some diagnosed ASD members too).

However he is getting all he needs with the "Other Health Impairment" category on his IEP (which is where they put most of the ADHD kids), and nothing would change at school were he officially diagnosed with high functioning autism.

We, on the other hand, are actively trying to bolster his social skills and understanding of non-verbal cues, outside of school.

I'm write the above.

An IEP is much more enforceable than a 504, but personally I would rather it be coded for what my child actually has, so if you believe your child does not have ASD, then don't back down, and demand an IEP under OHI.

[Anonymous]

We have an IEP but it doesn't contain everything needed (which is an issue) but my child has good grades. Grades are not the only factor. I'd ask for speech for the language issues but they usually will only provide it if the child is testing below average.