At the beginning of fourth grade in 2009, my son's principal approached us and suggested our DS needed to be tested for special education, due to his daily crying, tantrums, oppositional behavior, poor social skills and anxiety. She stated that the intermediate school (5th and 6th grade) would likely not offer as many supports without special education and he would end up at the alternative school. I knew my son struggled. I knew he had more anxiety and issues than his peers. It started in pre-school, and teachers every year commented on it. He was in the gifted program and it had been suggested he had asynchronous development. He could think about things he was not emotionally able to process. He had been described as "classically gifted" "sensitive" "slow to warm temperament" "quirky" and "spirited" It appeared most of his teachers and the workers at school liked him, but they just didn't know what to do with what seemed to them Jekyll and Hyde behavior, illogic, or unreasonableness. I was in school to earn my doctorate in psychology. I was in a facility that did a lot of testing on children in a small town in Texas. One day, I was testing a child and I realized he was about 90% like my son. Then it all fell together and I realized my son had AS. Here I am becoming an expert in the field, and I barely knew anything about it. I demanded the school tests include social skills instruments, an FBA, and the ADOS. Being in the field, they knew that I knew the law and the tests. They wanted to be sure I was happy with it so they wouldn't have to pay out of pocket for private testing. Everything pointed to AS (in some ways more HFA as his nonverbal IQ was much higher than his verbal IQ, and there were evidently problems with extremely slow processing speed). That took the whole fourth grade year. Fast forward to May of 2010. Finally, we had an IEP at the end of the school year and my son would receive special education services under the umbrella of emotionally disturbed with anxiety. Due to the limitations of school diagnosticians, they could not actually diagnose him, only determine whether he met the qualifications for the various special education services. Speaking to them, they felt he did not display enough "repetitive behaviors" - no stimming, and had fairly good eye contact, and good use of emotional tone (no flat affect), and had no "special interest." (I believe this is because his special interest is building, and it is more action than verbal - I now recognize the hours he spends every day building different creations out of different things as an obsessive interest. He just doesn't collect facts or present like the "little professor" stereotype). Therefore, according to them, he really was not Aspergers. I disagreed, but whatever, at least he would have support when we moved to the intermediate school. The first week of 5th grade went well, as my son wanted very much for the new children who did not know him to not think he was a "baby" for crying all the time. He couldn't keep it up. The supports were not working. 3 ARD meetings, daily phone calls, several placements in In-School-Suspension, almost daily trips to the principal's office and it was only getting worse. They continued to refer to him as oppositional. They made unrealistic demands, couldn't seem to get the Asperger's part, and the principal was ignorant about special education laws and made asinine comments all the time. We finally allowed him to be placed in the self-contained behavior classroom on another school campus. At least we were away from the ignorant principal. With a lot of parent/teacher communication, it is mostly working. We decided to seek out private testing to obtain an official diagnosis. I got referrals to find a psychologist/facility where I felt they understood the nuances of ASD and AS. There was a 6 month waiting list. We were to have an appointment in Feb of 2012. Lucky for us there was a cancellation in December and we were available to fill the slot, so the testing happened in December. We just got the report back yesterday. Yes, she agreed there were a lot of AS traits. He was definitely a "quirky" kid. However, she felt his social skills were much too good for an AS diagnosis. No sh**, he has been in social skills classes since he was in 2nd grade. He's a smart kid and has learned all the right answers to those da** scenarios. I am thinking to myself, did you read the FBA where they charted his social interactions minute by minute in three different settings? However, to give her some credit, she recognized his thinking in this arena was "disorganized" and it was likely that he was not able to apply the information he seemed to know to given situations. Duh! She did see the repetitive, stereotyped behaviors that the school denied in his insistence on routine and meltdowns associated with transitioning and changes like substitutes. He also is very time focussed. The final diagnosis was PDD-NOS, ADHD - Combined type, and Mood disorder, NOS. So, I guess I am fairly satisfied with the results. A year and a half later, I know much more than I ever did before. I have read every book I can get my hands on. And most of all, in my field, when the parents come into my office and I see the "quirkiness" in their child, I can be one of the knowledgable professionals who really gets what is going on. I just wanted to share what it has been for me to go through this process. I also wanted to thank all of you who pour out your hearts, and knowledge into posts. I have learned so much from everyone on here and I have used suggestions given on here to help parents who come into my office. You guys are awesome, and I just want to thank you all for being here on WP. ~Erica
03 Feb 2012, 11:05 am
Thanks for responding and letting me know it was similar with you child. 
