Reply to Autism and Overdiagnosis: Rampant, in psychologist's opinion

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How in the world would high-functioning Aspies be mistaken for MERLD?  The kids I know with MERLD are virtually unable/completely unable to talk.

Most of the kids I know who people doubt are autistic, or the autistic kids I know who people go around saying "He just needs a good spanking" are highly verbal.  Some may also have an adjustment disorder.  Perhaps all do. Probably all their parents do to.[/quote]

Being highly verbal is a feature of Aspergers (which no longer exists as they have lumped all kids regardless of their functioning together in a "spectrum.")  A MERLD or language disorder child would be high functioning autism, not Aspergers. Many language kids are diagnosed autism, when it is not correct.  [b]The problem with misdiagnosis is ABA does not work well on MERLD or language disorders and kids need intensive speech therapy.[/b]  Any behavior problems are generally associated with their frustration/lack of being able to understand or verbalize their needs and it generally gets better as the speech comes in.

Its very nice to see someone publish this and give it the attention it deserves.  Then, maybe people will focus more on language disorders and kids will get the help they need vs. being given a generic diagnosis that does not represent their concerns.  [/quote]

Behavior analysis can be used by parents to encourage speech behaviors.  We'd pretty much give my kid anything he wanted (within reason) if he asked for it. We did a lot of modeling of good speech behavior and asking him to imitate the model.

Example: "Do you want some juice?" (Nods) "OKay, you need to say 'May I have some juice, please?"  Kid says "Juice, please." Give him the juice. Getting what he wants is the positive reinforcer for using speech.   Rinse, lather, repeat 100 times a day.

Example 2:  Kid wants something, doesn't use words and tantrums when he doesn't get it. (I'm not a psychic.) We intervene to stop the tantrum. As soon as the tantrum is over, we say "Okay, you wanted to watch 'Phineas and Ferb.' The way to ask for TV time is to say "May I please watch 'Phineas and Ferb?" Kid says "May I please watch 'Phineas and Ferb?" I say "Absolutely," and put his show on. There are no negative consequences for tantrums other than being removed from the living room and placed in time out (negative reinforcement) and there is immediate redirection to appropriate speech and rewards for using appropriate speech (positive reinforcement).

That's a behavior program. It works on speech just as well as it works on any other behavior. Combing those techniques with speech therapy worked really well for my kid. [/quote]

This might be good for autism, but not MERLD. It's also not good for speech in general as it teaches scripted speech instead of naturalistic speech. ABA is all about compliance. [/quote]

It's about learning a behavior that can be generalized. Did you read the part where I said that speech therapy is also important? Speech therapy creates the building blocks for receptive and expressive language. Behaviorism teaches the child when to use speech and rewards the child for using speech, even if it's difficult for the child to do so and he/she would prefer to avoid it.

That will work for MERLD.  I think a lot of people with MERLD don't want to try ABA bjust  because they are so very heavily invested in their kid NOT having an ASD, and it's a therapy that they associate with ASDs in their head.  There's a huge stigma against ASDS among MERLD parents. There may be kids misdiagnosed as having an ASD when they really have MERLD, but there are plenty of kids who have an ASD whose parents insist on labeling as MERLD because they are so very, very terrified of the ASD diagnosis. [/quote]u

Where are you getting your information from?   We tried Aba for six months.   While it did no harm as we had a laid back therapist my kid got nothing from it.  What did help was 4-5 day a week speech therapy.  I do not know any asd kids misdiagnosed with Merld.  We have been in intensive speech for 3.5 years and sitting in the waiting room most of us know what goes on with each other's kids.   You clearly do not know Merld if you are recommending Aba and rationalizing why it will work when it cannot work for a child with severe receptive delays.  My child could not understand behavioral plans.  A reward or token system was useless.  We tried, Aba tried.  If you do not have receptive language someone telling you, you will get a prize for going potty with a chart means nothing.  Aba may have worked once the language came in but by then the issues resolved themselves.

There are kids misdiagnosed.  Mine is one.  My child at five no longer shows any asd signs so either he was misdiagnosed, we are amazing parents and he got the best possible services (the services was helpful) or we found a miracle cure even though autism cannot be cured.  I am not terrified of the diagnosis.  If my child has it, no big deal.  But, I do have an issue with misdiagnosis and posts like this giving misinformation about how they feel a service can be helpful when the true Merld experts recommend against it and I cannot imagine you are one of those true experts based on your post.  I want the services best for my child. I want to do everything I can for my child.  We private pay or go through insurance for everything.  I easily spend $15,000+ a year between co pays, private school (we are lucky our child is fine in a regular small private) and evaluations (our insurance only will pay for their local providers so we either use theirs or private pay).   There is no denial here. We have been very fortunate that our child is pulling out of it, but like many families it has come at a huge cost from leaving my job to financial and lifestyle - instead of being at the playground, we are at speech therapy. [/quote]

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