Reply to best place for second opinion on ASD diagnosis?

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Reply to "best place for second opinion on ASD diagnosis?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
We used the information they gave us to fight for our kid.

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Could you explain in more detail how the information the Camaratas gave you helped you fight for your kid.[/quote]

The school likely said their kid had autism or was cognitively impaired.[/quote]

PP here. Both, actually.  Our current district decided our son was autistic without actually ever doing the testing and would keep us in IEPs for hours trying to convince us to let them "test" him (they had already made up their minds) so they could put him in their autism program, which was basically glorified babysitting. Ironically, we discovered when we went through his school records that his previous public preschool had tested him for autism without our knowledge -- and it came up in the non-autistic range. Neither district ever told us this as it did not fit their agenda.

They were doing this to other parents as well, and we found out when all the kids hit the same middle school that the kids who went into the autism program were massively behind where my kid was. It was Dr. Camarata who told the IEP team that they should provide the data on how many kids made it out of the segregated autism program into gen ed. The team got real quiet then and dropped the fight. The three times we had Dr. Camarata conference in on IEPs were really different experiences than when we were on our own. But having all the information of my son's social scores and his nonverbal IQ led us to fight the good fight at every IEP.

One of the Camaratas big points that not only was our son not autistic, he was also not cognitively impaired and therefore needed access to the gen ed curriculum. We had followup testing from a different provider and then with the school district itself that verified my son has a typical nonverbal IQ.

There are some parents whose children didn't have language delays who always chime in on these threads. Having a child with a receptive language disorder is a very different journey.

Schools don't understand language kids. They just dump them in special education and call it a day unless you are vigilant. My son is in high school now, passing grade level classes. He's not the best student because his poor receptive language, but he's learning and progressing. He has had some special ed classes, and they seem to do little in there. There are no tests, books or curriculum.

OP, if you look at the stats, the younger they try to diagnose autism, the more often they are wrong. Below age 2 the accuracy is incredibly off. I'd trust your instincts. For now, you can just think about what your child needs and work on that. Have her retested at 3 or above. Tests are so much more accurate then.  But always, always, vet the person or clinic first. Ask if they do a differential diagnosis. Ask how often the diagnose autism.

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