Reply to New ASD/ADHD Diagnosis

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "New ASD/ADHD Diagnosis - Overwhelmed"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]We hear you, and lots of us have been there. It can be overwhelming.

Let's back up a second though. I hear that you were given the recommendation for speech and OT.

Do you actually need an IEP yet?  Or more "generalized therapy" (your words) for the ASD and ADHD? Or are you just feeling like "I just learned there's something wrong with my kid, so I need to do all the things to try and treat it?"

If you got to age 8 without needing a diagnosis, I'm going to assume both the ASD and ADHD aren't severe (for relativeness, my DS was diagnosed with ADHD at age 3 - it's pretty severe - we still never did all the therapies you're discussing above). Typically, on this board, with the ADHD/ASD 'non severe' diagnosis, most people have treated the symptoms, not the underlying diagnosis.  Just because you find out your kid has ADHD, doesn't mean there's some kind of "ADHD therapy" you start doing.  What are their symptoms? Bad handwriting? Then do speech?  Disorganization? An exec function coach or maybe your school offers classes.  Struggling in school? Maybe a tutor, or maybe if parents don't work, you can figure this one out yourselves with 20 extra minutes a night.  Social challenges? Maybe a social skills group, or maybe just an activity that supports those skills (lots of parents of ASD kids like scouts, or chess, or robotics).  And chances are, by age 8, you guys have already been working to support those deficits without doing anything formal. Or maybe you already have done speech when he was a kid.  Do they definitely need an IEP?  My kid with severe ADHD has been fine with a 504; basically, that doc gives him a bit more flexibility on handwriting, seating, test taking etc. which is all he needs to do well enough.

You'll also hear a lot of people on this board who declined to do many of the therapies that are "recommended", because they determine some tradeoff of (i) not healthy to be that busy and stressed for their kid and family; or (ii) therapies aren't actually doing anything. You'll also find there is no "one shop" expert for this diagnosis, so if your DS was diagnosed by a dev ped or neuropsych, they probably told you "here is the generically recommended therapies".  But no one is actually saying you need to do them all. It's like when I get frequent UTIs, my doctor hands me a piece a paper with 50 recommendations, including 'limit alcohol, take abx before sex, wear loose fitting clothes".  It's basically a throw the kitchen sink approach, and no one thinks you'll do all of them.  When your kids get this diagnosis, there's a huge rabbit hole of therapies you -could- do, and every one of those therapists is going to tell you their therapy is amazing. But only mom and dad get to decide what's worth it to their family.

Point of all this is he's the same kid he was last week before you had a name to describe why he is different. For whatever reason, you took him for an evaluation. Whatever your concerns were going into that evaluation, support those concerns through treatment. Which may be therapy, or medication, or adjusting your family routines, a 504 or IEP, or something else altogether.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics