Non-verbal does not always mean low functioning

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You are the expert on your son and no one deserves your trust simply because they have the right letters after their name. In retrospect, I realize how lucky I am that my daughter somehow managed to get a great team from the get go. It seems like that is the exception, not the norm. That gives me a sense of righteous indignation on behalf of autistic kids everywhere because it seems unjust on a cosmic level. To start out with the cards stacked against you and then being dealt a sh***y hand on top of it as far as the people who are supposed to help you level the playing field just doesn't seem right.

Gosh...wish I could become a spec ed teacher with just an associates degree! I have often looked into this, but it would require me getting my second graduate degree and I just can't see how I will have the discipline to follow through and get it done. I am still not sure how I ever managed to finish my first grad degree! Finishing what I start is definitely not my strong suit. In fact, failure to finish most of what I start is probably one of my greatest issues.

I have noticed a positive shift in most of your posts over time, btw...you are moving in the right direction. Keep chipping away at things and I think both you and your son will be just fine.

In retrospect, "idiot" was probably not a fair word. I do think that some professionals' approaches worked better than others for our son. it doesn't mean the others were idiots.

I have my own horror stories dealing with people hell-bent on going in the wrong direction, claiming credentials and specific relevant experience. These approaches did not align well with what I learned here. They did not work even after I gave them time and space to try it until I felt that there might be irreparable harm done.

So I tend to use hyperbole on this issue, and I recognize it is a bias I should be more upfront about. The specialists and teachers who "got it" and were flexible were great. The other ones ... well, maybe I should just replace "idiot" with something along the lines of "stubborn" or "rigid." I just tend to get emotional about this subject because of all the time and effort it took me to undo the damage done, and I don't like to see others go through that, if that is what I see.

Well, see, I don't care. An idiot is an idiot, even if you wanted to use euphemisms to describe EXACTLY what you think of them. A rose by any name smells just as sweet. An idiot by any name acts / talks just like one. I am sorry, but I just don't believe in political correctness, politeness, euphemisms etc anymore !

I found those "professionals" to be total, complete, unblemished, and UNDILUTED IDIOTS. I mean, if you think you can diagnose a 33 month old toddler with MR when you obviously don't know your own behind from crap on the street... IDIOT describes you pretty darn well.

To be honest, I suspect that much of what we lament in professionals is actually the concrete outcome of the overall perception of ASD as a defect. Society as a whole still sees it as an aberration in need of being recitfied and many "professionals" have been trained in a manner that reflects that. I don't know that it makes them stupid. It just makes them misguided when compared to perspective taken toward ASD in a community like WP.

Those professionals that I have interacted with who have a more "neurodiverse" philosophy are the ones I like and respect. The ones who saw my kids as defective and in need of...well...all the things they thought would remedy the defect, seemed to me to be idiots...and I am quite sure I called the first neurologist an idiot and probably worse...even though, truly, what they say and how they act are probably more consistent with the mainstream than the professionals I like and admire.

I've noticed this discussion over the relationship between the paper qualification of a psychologist and their capacity to diagnose children with a DSMV or ICD10 diagnosis. Here in Australia psychologists go through a 4 yr undergraduate program followed by 2 years clinical experience

Essentially this distills down to 2 years training with actual clients before they are allowed to register as practicing psychologists. In the scheme of mental health psychologists deal with broad levels of classification based on published material. It doesn't really matter if they have a Masters or a PhD. Psychologists are like lawyers in that their skills base is primarily books and what you are paying them $200/hr for is their specialised ability to interpret published information to draw conclusions about your child.

If you require more granular testing you would see a specialist such as a nuerologist to get a brain scan or specialised treatement such drug therapy then you would see a pediatrician or psychiatrist (who has an MBBS). In addition diagnosis from a psychiatrist or pediatrician has an additional advantage in that they are able to screen for comorbid medical conditions that can contribute to health profile of the child.

At the end of the day a mental health diagnosis is only really meant to assist a parent to make a considered decision over what types of therapy/treatment options to pursue. Parents who don't want to make a decision will have greater reliance on mental health specialists while those like myself or Hismom will choose to make more considered and informed judgements over what steps would be best for our children.

For instance my speech therapist and psychologist told me that without 40 hours of ABA per week my daughter will remain non-verbal. My wife and I i) scanned the literature and found there was more evidence based research that questioned the effectiveness of ABA than literature that supported it ii) We thought that 40 hrs per week would be too traumatic and whatever benefits would be outweighed by the stress of 40hrs per week of ABA on our child. As it turned out the advice of the mental health workers turned out to be false, Basically they are relying on evidence based research formulated in the early 1970s and despite their qualifications they were not critical enough to question the methods they have stuck with for years. They have simply told parents the same thing over and over that ABA was the only solution...it's not....

Parents should seek specialist advice but should subsequently think what is best for their children under the circumstances or situation they find themselves in (i.e. socioeconomic environment or financial situation to be taken into account) and take into account individual difference of their child from other children or from either the generic autistic profile that the medical specialists are drawing on or individual cases they have seen.

One thing I can definitely say is that none of the specialists (speech, psychologists or paeditricians) ever bothered to follow up with us so they will have no idea if their prognosis for our child (or other children) was correct or not. In terms of evidence based practice this is a major flaw in the health system in relation to treating children with developmental problems. Most of these specialists simply make a buck giving advice or provide temporary therapy and don't follow up.