Reply to best place for second opinion on ASD diagnosis?

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Op again-- wow, this thread got out of control! A few things:

For people suggesting ADOS: yes, that's how she was diagnosed the first time. And if you think the ADOS is never wrong, I am not going to change your mind on an anonymous website. I may try to get an appointment with the Camaratas, as I think I have exhausted local options. Thanks for all suggestions.

She is as social as her twin sister, if not more so. When I pointed this out to the psychologist who diagnosed her, she said, "Well, your other twin might be autistic, too. You should have her tested also." I refused to have Other Twin tested, as no one from early intervention, the NICU follow-up clinic, speech therapy, daycare, etc., is raising any autism concerns about Other Twin. The NICU follow-up team actually told me, "You probably won't have any more problems with her." Literally the only people who think she needs autism testing are the people who make money from it.

Her improvement is NOT due to ABA. She did a center-based ABA program for a grand total of 7 days before we had to pull her out because the ABA people can't feed her. She has been in feeding therapy for a year, and her feeding issues are caused by a motor delay, NOT a behavioral problem (according to the OT and psychologist on the feeding team at Fancy World-Renowned Hospital). The ABA people insisted on treating her feeding issues as a behavior problem, and basically used ABA techniques to try to force-feed her (even though they had instructions from the feeding therapy team to NOT do this).

So now, I am calling other ABA providers to see if we can get in-home ABA started. My conversation with one of them today went like this:

BCBA: So, what behavior problems does your child have that require ABA?

Me: Well, she doesn't really have behavior problems. But she has a diagnosis of severe autism from the autism center at Fancy World-Renowned Hospital, and they say she needs 30 hours a week of ABA therapy, and early intervention is paying for it.

BCBA: So what behavior problems was the other ABA center treating her for?

Me: Well, they had goals like getting her to say "I want milk", instead of just "milk". But I'm not sure if that's really an autistic behavior problem, since my other twin just says "milk", and lots of 2-year-olds just say "milk".

BCBA: Anything else?

Me: She... doesn't have great eye contact with people she doesn't know? But it's fine with people she knows, like me, or her regular speech therapist.

BCBA: So, our ABA program generally treats kids who have severe behavior problems, like hitting and kicking people, or spitting at people, or throwing chairs.

Me: She doesn't do any of that. She's very sweet. She comforts her twin sister and says, "It's okay!" when her sister is upset.

BCBA: It doesn't sound like your child needs ABA, because she doesn't have behavior problems.

Me: But Fancy World-Renowned Hospital told me she needs 30 hours a week of ABA, or she's going to regress and become non-verbal and cognitively impaired.

BCBA: Well, I guess we can go ahead and schedule an evaluation.

[/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