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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would do ADOS/ADI-R which only tests for ASD and is the gold standard.  4 is too young for a Neuropsych eval.

My son had zero issues until he entered prek and his teacher pointed out that there maybe issues.  DS was diagnosed with ASD/Asperger's at 4 and got an IEP.

He is doing great in 3rd grade at a language immersion school.  Has lots of friends and loves school.

If it turns out that your son has ASD, better to find out now and get him help rather than later.[/quote]

If you don't mind me asking, what treatment is available for mild ASD?  Other than socialization therapy (people might not be interested in hearing you talk about earthworms/LEGOs/Trains/insects/spaceships/human body all the time), I'm not sure what else he needs.  I think my position is that the teacher's concerns are more of "let's test to rule it out", and less "these are the problems I see and let's get on them now".  IF he was having serious issues I would be first in line to try to get some more testing done.  Since the only issues are likes to talk about a few topics, and has a handful of friends at school... I'm not seeing the problem I guess?

op[/quote]

People underestimate what kind of supports are needed for kids with "mild ASD" because they usually do not have academic issues.  My son does not and excels academically but he gets 20 hrs of Sp Ed support for social communication issues and 8 hr a month for social skills classes, pragmatic speech therapy and OT for fine motor issues - currently typing speed.  The Sp Ed support means that there is a Sp Ed teacher in the classroom to help with any issues that may come up.  DS has always been fully mainstreamed at his current school which is the only school he has ever attended with the bonus that he started at the school with the mostly same group of kids since prek4...  but there are over 100 kids in his class so plenty of kids to be friends with.

I want my kid to have friends including a best friend at school, not bullied or picked on, be a full participant and not a kid out by himself in the sidelines and to love going to school.  He gets all that with the supports he has.

It is difficult to provide high level academics with social supports.  There is exactly one school, Auburn, in this area that integrates a social skills curriculum with high level differentiation.

IF your son has ASD, it is better to know sooner.  Finding a school willing and able to provide the social supports (and the social curriculum) that a child with mild ASD needs is hard.  Better to start looking now.[/quote]

I wanted to add that DS was diagnosed at 4 by a developmental pediatrician, Dr Dan Shapiro, who does school observations, ADOS/ADI-R at a Children's, and a psychoeducational evaluation done by the school using a clinical psychologist from GW.   All three diagnosed ASD/Asperger's independently.  DS is not borderline but no one who meets DS now at 8 would ever think he has any diagnosis.  DS had a full neuropsych eval at 7 with Dr. David Black who diagnosed ADHD, combined type, as well as confirming the ASD/Asperger's.

What most people see is a bilingual child who excels at school who is very passionate and talented and is a happy kid.  I give all the credit to the fact that he has always gotten supports and services from his IEP that anticipates issues before they cause problems.  We haven't always been successful particularly when it came to the ADHD which wasn't diagnosed until second grade but identifying problems early and putting in supports have worked well for us overall.[/quote]

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