Why do they diagnonse/label us?

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Given my past experiences, I don't honestly believe that I could get appropriate and understanding "help" if I was labeled anyway.

Even if I struggle, my family don't want me to be labeled.
They want me to be able to get insurance and have opportunities.
They don't want me to be stigmatised.

No-one ever told me about a "social world": my family just wanted me to study hard without being labeled and that was it. They struggled for years without help and they all did okay.

I didn't even know that AS was about social issues until I researched it recently myself.

When I used to receive "help" I was never told about non-verbal cues or anything like that: no wonder why I was confused!

In fact, if anything, they took me out of class to separate me from the other children and made me do inane things unrelated to the curriculum.

It would be lovely if I could be understood and helped without being pitied or talked down to.

If I could be respected as a capable individual and still receive guidance without being labeled, maybe I'd be more receptive towards the whole idea.

Help = income and medical support from disability services.

It may've helped earlier in my life in high school (I'm sure it would have), as I would have been put in a different school, one for people with an ASD most likely, and they would have fostered my cognitive potential.

I don't care about typical socialisation.

good call, sinsboldly

Not in my case or personal experience.

My family complained about my assessment.
I never complained as such, I was just confused as to why people weren't allowing me to participate in activities with the other children. My parents said that was because I was labeled and the school wouldn't let me.

They want me to live without an AS label.
I haven't changed as a person at all.

My life is a struggle, but my family don't want to attach a label and stigma to that struggle.

On balance, my labeling didn't improve matters at all: people around me were ignorant. My label just attracted the pity brigade and didn't actually help me to integrate with the other kids at all.

If the "help" had been done better, less intrusively and there had been a clear physical test for AS, my parents wouldn't have complained at all. They'd have been all in favour of people helping me positively.

It seemed that people were frightened of the label where I lived: there was a lot of negativity, things are probably different elsewhere though.



In Australia?

Without the proper diagnosis, kids would not receive proper interventions so they could be provided support (the right kind). Many kids with aspergers are baffling and some might appear cognitively low in their inability to complete tasks or quickness to frustrate. Many would get thrown to the wolves or placed in a disturbed category. The wrong interventions or services creates further stress for the child who becomes depressed or mimics bad behavior.

Testing for Asperger includes a full psych and IQ test to affirm that, indeed, the child is well above (most times) the average IQ. This alone, rallies the forces to ensure that said child gets the right approach from all staff working with him/her.

As for family, well, diagnosis doesn't ensure anything. Most times, you're not going to get them on board. But, at the bare minimum, you will get some tolerance (hopefully). Why try to push it? Just give them some information and then let it rest. Aspergers should never be used as an excuse anyway. The old school doesn't want to know. Many family members are wise to keep opionions to themselves, which is fine. It's called tact.

Diagnosis, then, is more for the individual and professional staff working with him/her (whether it be job-related, medical or school).
Truthfully, I don't think friends and other really want to hear about your Asperger Syndrome unless they, too, share the same diagnosis! Most people don't want to have a diagnosis of anything and so keep it secret. Let's face it, the minute you say I'm an aspie you change others perspective of you. They see aspie first, individual second.

I certainly won't push it with my son. But, as he gets older, if he wants to meets up with others like him or that share interests and happen to be "aspies" too, hopefully, he'll feel comfortable. He's only nine now. We'll see. I don't want him caving into this thing he has, or using it as a crutch. I don't want him feeling disabled. He certainly is more gifted than disabled. I want him to strive to overcome any deficits, always! The brain can be trained to do just about anything.

.02

Last edited by equinn on 02 May 2009, 9:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

why do they diagnose us?

cus we ask them to :]

in my case, they wont even do it when i ask them to. official reason: "cant be arsed"

Yes.

It's also there in the US, UK, and probably most "Western" countries.

AmberEyes wrote:

Question? Why would somebody with AS not get insurance?
And why would someone with AS not have opportunities?

Because some people are prejudiced?
Because people don't understand or are ignorant?

I'm just going on what my family have said to me.
They may or may not be correct, they may even be misinformed.
Please bear in mind that this was the only real information I had for years.


-They didn't want me to be put into a "special school" or "held back" or excluded from field-trips/activities.

-They didn't want me to be "mollycoddled" or pitied by others.

-They believe that the AS label is discriminated against by employers.

-They didn't believe that anything was "wrong" with me, therefore I didn't require "help".

-They said that I didn't have AS because...well...according to them, I didn't!

-They also said that people with AS aren't allowed drive and aren't entitled to various types of insurance.

That's why they said they wanted me to ditch the label.


Again, this is probably just where I live, things may be different and more sensible elsewhere.

Private Insurance companies are very hesitant to give coverage to people with disabilities or medical conditions. They believe that those particular clients will cost them more money than they would make off them in premiums. They are concerned that as soon as they grant coverage, the client would then start taking tons of medications and attend tons of therapies, and expect the insurance company to pay for all of it.

As for opportunities, your childhood pretty much determines where you're going in life. There are exceptions, but this is true more often than not.

A child with AS who is not diagnosed might have social difficulties, but they have more incentive to change their behaviour on their own due to peer pressure, and personalized methods of adaptation tend to be more effective and lead to a happier individual than strict, psychologist-mandated methods.

The child with AS who is diagnosed may not have that incentive, due to parents and teachers telling them that they can't help it. Sometimes, they just segregate the AS children altogether. In addition, methods for improvement of social behaviour tend to be artificial and psychologist-mandated. This might put up a facade of improved social interaction, but when it comes to real interaction with peers, they are often no better off than they were in childhood. It's just learning by rote, rather than critical thinking.

But the more troubling situation is that children diagnosed with AS are more likely to end up in remedial programs, which can cause institutional problems (You need at least a general credit to take the next level. Oh? You have a modified credit? Too bad.)
This can cause the child to fall further and further behind, until they pretty much have no hope of attending post-secondary education.

In addition, it's becoming more and more common for parents to encourage their children to disclose their AS to everyone, including job applications. While they technically aren't allowed to discriminate, it still happens. AS could be seen as a violation of a Bona Fide Occupational Requirement (Excellent Interpersonal Skills). Unfortunately, "Excellent Interpersonal Skills" is a BFOQ for about 98% of jobs. If they use that as an excuse for why they won't hire a person with AS, it's perfectly legal. Would they hire a blind welder? Or a paraplegic firefighter?

In cases like this, a person is better off un-diagnosed.

Agrees.

This is what I had to do when my label was removed.
It did me a lot of good to figure things out for myself.
The best methods I've found are the one's I've developed for myself, no psychologist or helper taught me any of these skills.




This happened with me.
They took me out of the classroom for long periods of time alone increasing my separation from the other kids.
I made dough and icing shapes and asked to name animals I already knew the names of. No social skills training was ever mentioned. So I was oblivious to what I was doing wrong and angry/confused that they said I was failing, but they wouldn't tell me what I was failing at!


There has to be another more sensible and productive way to do this.
With dyslexia, people have far more productive attitudes.
Why not with "social dyslexia"?

I'm not a monster, I'm a capable, well motivated human being who can analyse systems and work alone effectively.

That's probably true for lots of others also.

I think whether a label harms you or helps you depends largely

I, without any label, was often send out of the class room because teachers didn't want to teach me or because I was 'disturbing' the class for being 'psycho'.

The other kid my age, in my year and in my school and with a label - some DD, probably had hf AS or HFA - successfully made his way through schooling despite his obvious disability.

The lack of label harmed me more than anything and I had to leave that school too, while the label helped this other kid who'd otherwise not have been in that school.

It's crazy that in another place and time, the total opposite to what happened. Shows the madness of our world.

Agreed.

I'm not going to romanticise the issue, I was labeled as AS back then because I was "incredibly naughty" and seen as a "problem child".

If I hadn't been seen as a "problem" I wouldn't have been labeled.
I was a girl and I acted out, I hear that girl's acting out was rare, but I acted out.

I never meant any real malicious intent though, I was overwhelmed by the crowded classroom. I also had no clue of social boundaries at all because I wasn't told about them!

I definitely had issues in that environment, but having a label seemed to aggravate and draw unnecessary negative attention to these issues.

wow, that "insurance" thing is a tough one,
makes me reconsider having a label for my child too...shouldnt there be a"discrimination" law or something?
I guess there is a lot of stuff I am not informed on.

Not in my case.
Sorry to be the exception to the rule here (yet again).

When I was five years old no one ever asked me for my opinion.

I certainly didn't ask to be assessed for AS, the school suggested that.

Lots of kids are probably referred in the same way.
Many of them don't have a choice in the matter.

QFT

I only got services and help after my diagnosis. Before that I couldn't get that help, so that's why a diagnosis is quite important.

When I was in the process of getting diagnosed, my mother was asked why she was trying to label me. She wasn't, she just wanted me to get help in the problems I had.