DX & Therapy?

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We took my son to a psychiatrist 4 years ago based on the schools recommendation. The Dr. told us he didn't have ADHD as the school thought. She indicated to us that the school was off base and that we might look into asperger syndrome. It made sense to me that he wasn’t ADHD because he lives life at a snails pace most of the time. She recommended some books for us to read and basically said you know your child better than anyone else. I feel like she left it up to us decide.

How important is an official diagnosis and what type of therapy is available? My son has a lot of problems with school work (deciding to do it) and especially home work. His band teacher who doesn’t hold anything back says "George is completely unfocused. He will not comply". He currently goes to a private school that doesn't have a counselor. We consulted a local counselor in the public school system who said they have 3 children with asperger syndrome and they don't know how to work with them.

How old is he? What area do you live in?

Also, I see your profile says "has AS, not diagnosed". Does that refer to you or to your son?

for our family, the difference between getting a diagnosis and being undiagnosed was HUGE!! !!
before having the official diagnosis, our son was just viewed as a disruptive discipline problem which we had caused by "faulty parenting" once he had the diagnosis, we were able to push the school system for services. we were able to get him out of the school he was in, and placed in a much better school. the school he's in now focuses more on the "real world" ( he's 14)....life skills, and therapy are included in his daily and weekly routine.....the earlier the diagnosis , the better ! good luck!

We suspected aspergers at age 2 and began sensory integration therapy then. She was officially diagnosed at age 3.5 more for family relations than anything. Although the professionals complemented us on what great parents we were, our families attributed her troubles to poor parenting (still do), go figure. We've done some speech therapy, and met with the psychologist once a month. Finacial troubles have forced us to give up most of her therapies, but she actually seems to be doing better. I think the early sensory integration therapy and having an ot identify her sensory issues has been the most helpful. Socialization is such a big part of school, that I would think it would be very difficult for someone with Aspergers to do well without some form of socialization instruction and/or special allowances being made, both of which would require a diagnosis.
Personally, we've decided to homeschool, although that's not an option for everyone.

My sone will be 10 at the end of the month. We live in the Seattle area. As for my profile I picked undiagnosed because I wasn't so sure I got an official diagnosis nor did I see a selection for parent of undiagnosed child.

I'm really curious as to what is done in therapy & how much if any kind of a difference it would make.

Do I just need to resolve that people will always think of him as a difficult child?

first, you can't control what other people are going to think or say ~ either they're going to accept your child, or not...............as far as therapy goes, if you have a good therapist, she will work on social skills and relaxation techniques.

You will get some family members saying that it's bad parenting, thats what my dad says is wrong with my kids,
"They should have gone to school, made them tough." this is from my dad.
You have to do the best for your child, and you do know your child best. As far as a snails pace, that sounds like my son, we always seem to be waiting for him, and he has a poor getting to work on time attitude.
As for therapy my kids were to old for this by the time we learnt about Aspergers.
wishing you well.

In our experience a dx has help significantly. If the school only went with an OHI (other help impairment) with ADHD, we wouldn't be getting all the extra services AND understanding we are getting now. An AS dx has given us an in-home trainer who helps J with learning to focus on getting ready for school in the morning (one of our hardest times of the day), learning time management and other social issues such as empathy, respect, or any other area he is struggling with.

As J has gotten older (almost 10 now) and the kids at school have gotten meaner and more clickish, he now struggles with relationships (keeping friends). The AS dx now provides a counselor to help him learn how to deal with social problems he has been dealing with at school. (i.e., the boys him a funny name and tease him even though they like him, and he misunderstands and literally thinks they are being mean to him, so he says something mean to them and then it escalates from there).

If we had a simply OHI dx, there is no way we would be getting help in these social areas.