Aspie eval

Post Reply New Topic

As part of my speech pathology program, we assess the language of children and adults who come to the clinic. I had an assessment this morning with a 9 year old who can't say "r". He'd been receiving speech therapy for several years, and there was nothing in the folder to suggest that anything other than an articulation delay might be going on. Well, five minutes after meeting this kid, my supervisor and I were like, "Wow, this kid has classic Asperger's." So while I was interviewing the mom, I asked a lot of questions about his social abilities, how he gets along with other kids, how he deals with change, etc. The mom was really closed about answering those questions- she gave vague answers and wasn't very willing to elaborate.

Now, although it's really clear the kid has Asperger's, we're not actually allowed to say those words to the mom. The best we can do apparently is to write up very thoroughly, in addition to his articulation problem, the kinds of problems we see in his social interactions. In addition, since he'll be receiving therapy at the clinic, we'll make sure the clinician works on social skills with him in addition to articulation. Isn't it dumb that we can't tell the mom he has Asperger's though? Actually, my supervisor thinks that his mom has heard the word "Asperger's" before, and that that is actually why she removed him from his previous school. His mom used the word "meltdown" in describing his reactions to frustration, and was very closed about talking about his interactions with other kids and the difficulty he has making friends, but does admit she works on social skills with him at him. This kid was bullied horribly last year and has really low self-esteem, so let's all cross our fingers that this new school will be better for him, that the skills he'll learn in therapy will be really useful for him, and that his mom will learn to accept his unique skills and needs.

I am curious to know the mom's background. It's possible that the social inabilities of her son are the same things she experienced and it was so painful for her that she is having a hard time watching her son experience it.

My son is the same way. He was in speech therapy for years for an artic disorder surrounding the letter 'r'. Seems to me that perhaps the mom just is in denial that her son is on the spectrum for of course all of the normal stigma problems that autism in general carries.

I hate moms like that, expecting perfection from their kids. Many a person can tell you that they're far from perfect most of the time. (*spits out spaghetti mush*)

It could be that she is trying to protect her son from "Labeling". My mom was that way. When she found out our daughter had PDD, she was very sad, and even tried to get angry at the doctors for "labeling" her like that. She sees it as being detrimental to the child's self esteem to be labeled as having a disorder.
We just see it as the ticket to getting the help she needs from the school district instead of paying for all of it privately.