Son with possible Aspergers

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Absolutely right about the protection in school. I know how hard it is to get the testing process rolling in school because I'm a teacher and my gosh, I looped with my same group of kids and there are two I've been wanting tested for Special Ed since they were with me last year, and I knew these kids in 2nd grade and now, two years later, we are JUST starting the process.

I think the upside, is that my son will probably be attending the school where I teach and I am very good friends with all administrators and diagnosticians, also the speech therapist, OT's and PT's in our district. We house life skills here and have lots of kids on the spectrum, both low and high functioning, main stream, etc. So I am hoping that once he starts school, we can get the ball rolling if we need to.

My son would not have gotten diagnosed until this November (vs May by the school and July by the psychologist) (his teacher had a meeting with me in January, I think, to tell me about the issues) and would still be on the waitlist for therapy if I had not pushed. This is something that is very irritating to me.... they preach early intervention and then think they have all the time in the world to diagnose... just doesn't make sense. And when I think about how far he has come in such a short time, to think whether he would have even made it through first grade without the help... not to mention it is very frustrating when you are in this kind of limbo.

From Jan to May I tried to push for outside diagnosis, but after waiting a while to see developmental pediatrician I was then referred by him to a psychologist, who was not even giving out dates because he was so backed up-- November was their best guess.

So here is what I did. The school told me they would put everything in a 504 plan (since he has seizures anyway) and they would not be able to test him until the following school year. When I went to the 504 meeting, I came with pages of a specific problem and possible solution for each.

Most importantly, my first point was that I was concerned that if we start randomly trying things without testing him to see what his problem is, the things that we would implement might do more harm than good. Once the counselor read this, she chuckled and said "Now that you wrote that we have to test him right away. How did you know that? We do not usually tell people that." And indeed, I had just spoken to that counselor and she told me that they would not be able to test until next year. Once the counselor notified the school psychologist for testing, things moved really quick. I can tell you we are extremely lucky to be in the school that we are in. They have been absolutely wonderful and instrumental in helping him ever since the testing took place.

Once the school made a diagnosis, I had all the paperwork and IQ test results to back up everything. I called the outside psychologist (who I had already called and pleaded with at least 5 times to no avail, and was backed up to November at the absolute earliest-- they would not even give me a date) told them school already did testing, and we were seen within a couple of months. We were able to start therapy at the very beginning (vs middle) of the school year, which has made a huge difference.

Our next trip to pediatrician and she mentioned how amazed she was that we already had therapy in place... how it usually takes so long just to get a diagnosis.... really? something is wrong with this system... hopefully this is just our area, and not happening to everyone.

Maybe he dont have AS, but only PDD NOS!?