We had our first visit with the pediatric psychiatrist today—one who specializes in pediatric development and Autism. Was super nervous about a few things—competence of this unknown doctor, cost, process. Language barrier (we live in a non-English speaking country).
Turns out I was mis-guided thinking we’d have a full evaluation today. A little disappointing initially. However, I first met with a nurse/assistant who did an intake and took all kinds of notes and finally the doctor, who met with both me/son who is 4 1/2. (DH in the lobby occupying DD). She had read the nurses notes and asked me a number of further questions, but it wasn’t an official evaluation. She mostly wanted to know why we were there (what I expected to get out of an evaluation)—and what I thought his problem might be.
She was fluent in English and obviously an expert very familiar with Asperger—two of my main fears laid to rest. She said because he initially seems to have ok eye contact and since he could follow her directions to take his shoes off and play with some toys, that he is obviously not ‘low-functioning’—(I know that already). So, she wants to do the ADI-R with me in one week and then one week later the ADOS with him. My question: Is there a link in the parent forum with more info about those particular evaluations and what to expect?
(Funny thing is, with the nurse, my DS was hiding his face in my lap, under my sweater, covering his face with my hands, not answering questions . . . then with the doctor he got all smiley in a shy way and listened like a charm. Of course.)
Here is the awesome news—we were told to expect to pay $300-500 for this visit. When it came time to pay, the clerk happened to ask if we had a local pediatrician we go to (we do), he called them and got a referral and we walked out only $50 poorer. Then, the doctor said with our permission she would like to record her evaluation sessions in the next two weeks with me/my son—she is getting more practice doing the ADOS and ADI-R in English (she is an expert in her native language) and will have experts at the UMACC (Univ. of Michigan Autism Center) co-evaluate with her. The fantastic news is that because of that, she is going to do it for free. I hope that’s a good thing—it sure sounds good to me, since it was going to be pretty expensive . . . and then, if I am completely disappointed by how thorough she is/isn’t or her opinion, I won’t regret it as much. And I can still afford to go for a second opinion.
I was so praying about that—and whether you believe in prayer, luck, or chance—it’s just a real relief to get an answer even better than what you wanted. I know everyone is not always that lucky--but perhaps one day I can pass it on.
I told her I don’t want to ‘change’ my son, I just want to understand him and know how to help him. Also need some way to give guidance to his teachers. And, as someone else on here said, if you follow methods assuming a diagnosis that is wrong, you can waste a lot of time and they won’t work. Also . . . I think same person said this . . . that when you use the tools for a certain diagnosis and they work, well, that kind of validates what you think. We've just started doing emotion flash cards and time cards and some other things based on ASD methods and so far it seems to be starting to help. Also seems, that as I talked with the doctor, that she validated a lot of my concerns, and she had already come to the same conclusion as I fairly quickly . . . that my son may indeed be somewhere on the spectrum.
So, ADI-R next week and ADOS the next! Guess even after that results may take some time as she consults . . . but at least we are getting somewhere. That feels better.
20 Jan 2012, 9:19 am
