Reply to ADHD, not autism -- what now?

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Reply to "ADHD, not autism -- what now?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We're going through the process of getting our son into the County special ed preschool program.  Once he is found eligible, he can receive services ranging from speech therapy to OT while he is there.  The program is 1/2 day, 2-5 days a week depending on what your child needs.  Have you begun this process at all?  Is your child in Early Intervention?  If your child is in EI, then they transition to the County services regularly, and can definitely guide you on how the process works.

I'm curious...what made you get a second opinion?  Your situation is interesting to me because my son was dxed with ASD just after he turned 2...and was said to be mild....I think mostly because he doesn't exhibit many of the classic autism behaviors.  He is VERY smiley with both my husband and I, as well as others....doesn't exhibit repetitive behaviors like lining up objects etc.  He is not what I'd call a social butterfly, but he tolerates a traditional daycare with many children in his class.  He is extremely hyper...and [b]we've always wondered about the ADHD component[/b].
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ASD can be accompanied by ADHD. [/quote]

NP here.  I don't think of it that way.  That is, I don't think that most kids have two separate disorders.  I think a more sensible way to look at it is that a child has one disorder, that is unique to them, that shares features with both ASD and ADHD and meets the criteria for both, or even ASD, ADHD and one or more other diagnoses such as an Anxiety Disorder, or  Apraxia of Speech, or Developmental Coordination Disorder, or Expressive and/or Receptive Language Disorders.   At various points in a child's development some features may be more prominent or concerning than others, and this may change over time.  For example, a child's communication difficulties may seem primary when they are very young, and then improve with intensive therapy, where as their difficulties with attention and executive functioning may not be as obvious until they enter school and encounter the demands of an academic setting, at which point it may be appropriate to program for him or her as a child with ADHD.

The other thing I will point out is that the criteria used to diagnose a child as having ASD under IDEA, are quite different from the criteria used to diagnose children under the DSM.  Because of this, there may be situations where a child is diagnosed by a school team as having ASD, while outside professionals describe him as ADHD, or to be diagnosed as ASD by outside professionals, but not qualify for an IEP at all at school.  [/quote]

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