Misdiagnosis? What do you think?

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Hi everyone,
My son is 6 years old, in the process of being diagnosed, and there is a lot that points to Asperger's. The strategies used for kids with Asperger's do seem to work in most instances, and none of the typical advice helped much before, so I'm very happy about that, but I'm curious! He does score pretty high on the Australian Scale, but I wonder if some of the characteristics he displays wouldn't ''disqualify'' him from an Asperger's diagnosis. For instance, he has excellent motor coordination, having started to walk, run, ride bikes, etc. very early and well. He does not, however, care at all about any organized sports. Another thing is being highly affectionate, but sometimes going over the top (we are a very affectionate family, but he can hurt people by hugging too hard, or will kiss me repeatedly for long periods of time). He does have his obsessions, does tend to go rigid when stressed, rock, be the ''little professor'', have an impressive memory, have trouble doing and saying the right thing with other kids, etc. What do you think?

Excellent motor skills do not a misdiagnosis make.

There is no perfect list of attributes or symptoms for autism or Asperger's. There is variation. We are still all individuals with differences that can be quite marked.

I would focus on "The strategies used for kids with Asperger's do seem to work in most instances".

If it's working, keep doing it. If it ends up that Asperger's is not the final diagnosis, so what? Your son is getting positive results NOW. That's a good thing.

I agree, for example, many here have difficulties driving. (Adult AS of course) but I'm sure I'm not the only one here who is an excellent driver.

That's a hard one. I don't really have any advice but to wait and see what the evaluators say in the end.

Thanks, all, and Wraythen, you are completely right - I just wonder where ''manifesting a few symptoms'' becomes a diagnosis, where the line is drawn.
Wavefreak, that is what I'm doing. My husband seems to be a bit worried about the whole thing, but I think that, whether he's got Asperger's or not, there's the undeniably positive aspect that these strategies have been developed and work to make it easier for him to thrive in a classroom environment and generally be a happy kid, which he usually is unless somebody is being a jerk. Whether there's a name for that or not, I could care less. I was a pretty odd kid myself, although other kids didn't bother me that much. Last year, I took him out of a school where he got attacked and hurt by other kids and the school said it was because he was annoying them, and found out it's a pretty common occurrence with Aspies. In any case, I just thought Aspies would be the right ones to ask.

That's what we are here for! I hope the best for your son, as well as you and the rest of your family. If we can be of any further help please don't hesitate to ask!

(See my signature!)

from http://www.awares.org/static_docs/about ... cSection=3

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3.2.3 The active but odd group

Children of this group make active approaches to others but make that contact in strange ways, including:

Paying no attention to the other party;
Poor eye contact although sometimes may stare too long;
May hug or shake hands too hard.

-=-

Approaching others and being physically affectionate do not rule out autism.

Thanks, Omnicognic!
Sparrowrose, thanks for pointing me to the article. That sounds just right - and poor eye contact along with staring too long. And reading that, for some reason, reminded me of when he was smaller and would walk up to me and my husband, very seriously stick his hands in our mouths attempting to open as wide as possible, and peer intently inside, asking about how we made sounds!
Also from the article - often talks too loud (but uh, he's 6. They all talk too loudly), overemphasized enunciation, a bunch of other things.
For years, I had many people ask me if I ever considered testing him for ADHD, but that didn't seem to be the answer. I just don't want to go overboard on ''my child is different'' kind of thing, but aspie-specific advice does seem to help, so I'm still sifting for clues. I took the aspie test myself and seem to have characteristics of both (which I did not expect, but am not too surprised about either), so that may be another pointer...

It's really common for one (or both!) parents to also be on the spectrum, often undiagnosed. Many adults only realize that they have asperger's after their child is diagnosed.

In my own case, my father is (very obviously) on the spectrum. My mother is not but my late aunt probably was (she died in childhood so who knows, but piecing together evidence makes it likely) and my mother's brother's child had an autistic child. So I get it from both sides: directly from my father's side and indirectly from my mother's.

Sparrowrose, thanks for posting that article. Very interesting!

Flyby, if he doesn't fall under Aspergers, he might still qualify for PPD-NOS.

Sparrowrose, that's a great article. Thanks!

Heh, sounds like you've got an autistic extrovert on your hands. They're a rare breed, but they do exist (my estimate, maybe one in ten autistics is an extrovert--compared with three in four neurotypicals!)

hell do better then most people with AS being that he is intimate and hugging. thats a big difference is social perspective,