I'm not sure how an IEP would differ based on HFA vs. MERLD ADHD and SCD. The challenges seem so related that I have trouble seeing the distinction.

MERLD is sometimes used as a soft landing for HFA.

My son was pegged as MERLD as a preschooler, but now I atually suspect he has HFA.
My experience has always been that teachers never let a diagnosis pass their lips, which makes it difficult because they edu-speak dialectic rings around me and I have to infer what they mean.

If someone does mention something, take it seriously.
Autism is a spectrum, your child could be high-functioning but have some tendencies.

<<If you have a child with MERLD, schools will always push autism in my experience. I literally know of dozens of cases across the country where this is so (I belong to several MERLD groups.) Schools do this because they don't understand MERLD, and they've dumped all their money into the autism programs, so it's easiest to mislabel a child and shove them in their autism program as opposed to creating an actual INDIVIDUAL education plan. >>

+1 on this.

But a given diagnosis doesn't mean "a center based program," right?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short: They don't. But in order to service a child with a "Social Communication Disorder" and the other co-morbid conditions they need to choose the educational diagnosis of autism... and frankly, this combination screams autism to me.

Do not confuse the educational diagnosis with the ultimate identity of your child, I'd say if it gets him the extra support accept it and go from there. Do not buy into the myth that kids can't get rid off their label.

Oh, so you are smarter than all the folks who created the DSM 5? You just know that Social Communication Disorder is autism?

And the proper educational label for someone with SCD is a LANGUAGE disorder, not autism.

Why so aggressive? You didn't read carefully enough. If we were JUST looking at SCD, my response would be entirely different. But OP also mentioned MERLD and ADHD. OP also noted she does not see her child be able to mainstreamed immediately. A non-cat special ed classroom will not necessarily target SCD and the combination of conditions very well, whereas an autism classroom could do this very well. A LANGUAGE disorder just gets you speech therapy, it almost NEVER warrants a placement in a self-contained classroom.

And I can tell you from personal experience that girls in particular are often not diagnosed with autism until they are in their teenage years and no longer able to cope, so while I do not know if OP's child is a girl, I would still recommend to intervene heavily as early as possible.

Because I have a MERLD child, and I get this line of shit from so many people -- mainly school personnel and autism parents determined to broaden and lesson the spectrum. You are ignorant and wrong and spreading misinformation. A language disorder got my son every accommodation, including speech, OT, one on one aides in classrooms and a full IEP.

Once you put a child in a center-based program, they almost never come out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In short: They don't. But in order to service a child with a "Social Communication Disorder" and the other co-morbid conditions they need to choose the educational diagnosis of autism... and frankly, this combination screams autism to me.

Do not confuse the educational diagnosis with the ultimate identity of your child, I'd say if it gets him the extra support accept it and go from there. Do not buy into the myth that kids can't get rid off their label.

Oh, so you are smarter than all the folks who created the DSM 5? You just know that Social Communication Disorder is autism?

And the proper educational label for someone with SCD is a LANGUAGE disorder, not autism.

Why so aggressive? You didn't read carefully enough. If we were JUST looking at SCD, my response would be entirely different. But OP also mentioned MERLD and ADHD. OP also noted she does not see her child be able to mainstreamed immediately. A non-cat special ed classroom will not necessarily target SCD and the combination of conditions very well, whereas an autism classroom could do this very well. A LANGUAGE disorder just gets you speech therapy, it almost NEVER warrants a placement in a self-contained classroom.

And I can tell you from personal experience that girls in particular are often not diagnosed with autism until they are in their teenage years and no longer able to cope, so while I do not know if OP's child is a girl, I would still recommend to intervene heavily as early as possible.

Hmm. Interesting. My earlier post disappeared.

Scientific research has found that joint attention skills and the ability to read nonverbal cues separate non ASD from ASD.

Dear OP -

It is hard to know the specifics of your child's needs over the limitations of the internet. However, I would suggest you hire a private advocate to review your child's IEP and to go with you to the IEP meetings for professional support. For our family, it is my child's tutor. She is not an attorney but she has a Masters in Special Education and is familiar with the testing reports and recommendations. She was recommended to us by the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

In short, early intervention is best. However, the wrong IEP with inappropriate services and accommodations can limit your child's development. In our child's case, we had her privately evaluated and thought we were successful in actually getting an IEP with lots of support, however there was one particular support recommended that MCPS said they would not provide that drove us to seek out an advocate. When the advocate read my daughter's IEP, the advocate immediately saw accommodations that spoke volumes as to the school washing their hands of actually teaching my daughter basic reading and writing skills. The advocate helped us remove disabling accommodations from the IEP and push for appropriate goals and objectives to increase my daughter's proficiency in her areas of weaknesses.

The other piece of the puzzle is the need for private support for your child. MCPS only provides at best half ass services. Even if they promise you the moon, what happens to your child if they do not deliver what your child is entitled to in the IEP? My daughter has had a great IEP but I would link the majority of her progress is the result of the special education services she receives from her tutor twice a week. My daughter is now in high school and has supported classes but the reality is that the special education teachers do not give her instruction towards her specific goals and objectives.

Finally, Autism is known as a Spectrum Disorder because there are all shades of needs and abilities for children afflicted with this disorder. A professional once described the spectrum to me as this: Imagine a line. On the left side is ADHD, somewhere in the middle is Asperger's, and at the far right is Autism. All these disabilities have the executive functioning difficulties of ADHD but as you move to the right, other issues such as problems with social and relationship development become apparent. With the school team, focus on the services the IEP will provide and whether or not they are appropriate for your child. The school team will push for what is most convenient for them instead of focusing what is best for your child even if it means mislabeling a child. The school team's label is not a permanent, but it would warrant a question to the team why they suspect autism without evaluation data and private documentation that supports a diagnosis? Also, have your pediatrician review the data collected and see if he concurs with an Autism diagnosis and to determine if further private testing is warranted. If an all inclusive setting is recommended, ask to observe a class and see the environment they are proposing to place your child. Again, get the opinion of an outside professionals to gauge what is best for your child's needs. The label the IEP team uses to justify services is not as important as the accommodations, goals, and objectives the IEP provides.

Yes, they did suggest autism spectrum during our first IEP as well. At that time, we didn't have DS evaluated and the whole label "oh crap, my kid has autism" sounded pretty scary to us. It's now been 2 years, we have done all sorts of evaluations and no, no autism spectrum. Full blown ADHD though and they are recommending meds. That's another scary chapter in our lives but we shall overcome

Anonymous wrote:We had an ironically opposite experience. Ds has experienced three schools and two evaluations. They offered a grab-bag of suggested diagnoses including ADHD, ED, sensory issues, anxiety, giftedness, being "spoiled" and "needing a kick in the pants." No one said a word about autism.

Then we had a GOOD assessment done, and the evaluator basically said, How could they all miss this. His profile screams HFA.

Anecdotally, I have heard this most happens with HFA (in particular girls with high functioning autism/Aspergers b/c it is so much less common in girls).

We didn't receive an autism "label" from the school system until my child had been receiving services for several years. I think it is hard to generalize esp in this area with so many different school systems.

What I have noticed after two children with IEPs and many years in the special needs community is that some parents will do anything to "avoid" the autism label. Pretty much any diagnosis is preferable to autism. "No, my child just has severe SPD and needed speech therapy for three years--and we are really working on eye contact--and is a little obsessed with trains, but don't all boys love trains?" And I think a lot of professionals do parents a disservice by not being 100% honest with them (cue vague developmental pediatricians and greedy OTs).

But, there are also kids with less-common language issues like OPs that aren't understood very well by your garden variety IEP committee people. So its tough.

We had an ironically opposite experience. Ds has experienced three schools and two evaluations. They offered a grab-bag of suggested diagnoses including ADHD, ED, sensory issues, anxiety, giftedness, being "spoiled" and "needing a kick in the pants." No one said a word about autism.

Then we had a GOOD assessment done, and the evaluator basically said, How could they all miss this. His profile screams HFA.

Anonymous wrote:Medical diagnosis and educational label are not the same thing. Get the educational label that provides your kid w/ the services they need.

Educational labels drive services in many schools, even though they are not supposed to.

Giving an autism label to a child who has other issues instead can be disastrous in a school setting. I know, we barely escaped the school's relentless push for an autism label. Five years later, they were saying, "Whoops! Sorry we did that. Your child would not be where he is now if you had listened to us and put him in a center-based program."

Medical diagnosis and educational label are not the same thing. Get the educational label that provides your kid w/ the services they need.

Not in our case. We ended up with ED.