To get an official DX or NOT????

Post Reply New Topic

My son is 8 years old, and shows 98% of the signs of Aspergers. My sister is a Special Education teacher, who has specialized in Autism, she now heads her school districts SE department. She believes that he has Aspergers.

However, both she and my mother (a retired teacher) (more so my mother) are against me seeking an official dx for him.

We live in an extremely rural part of North Dakota, (average class size and grade level 5-9 students) from four towns. I've just now found out that my youngest who I authorized a speech evaluation for, but informed the school in no uncertain terms that I wished to be present for and a part of the results and IEP, is receiving services, although I've received no results nor the required IEP meeting. Most of our teachers are inexperienced with special needs, we do not have a full-time regular SE teacher. They fear that these teachers will not know how to work with him and may expect less of him (he currently is getting very high grades) except in handwriting. I have requested an OT evaluation of his fine motor skills for this reason.

Our medical personnel is definitely lacking, as I've had some difficulty myself in my on dx's of other conditions. Along with some tales by locals of horror stories with the area physicians.

I don't know if I should continue to work with him with social stories etc. through my sister, and just see where it goes from there, or to seek out a dx for him, then if I do, keep it to myself, or make the school aware.

I'm really at a crossroads on this issue, because of where we live. Picking up and moving is not an immediate option.


I believe I very well may have AS or darn close to it myself, though then I was merely dx'd with "hyperactivity" ADD/ADHD did not even exist then. The more I've read, the more I see myself as well.

Is there any benefit to either direction above the other? Should I seek a dx? If I do should I inform the school? Should I just keep going and working with him at home?

Let me ask you this, if you do not get a DX at this time, will the school still offer your son the assistance he needs and the class setting her needs. If so then do not bother.

I know a fellow bus driver here who the schools are offering her son services for AS without a diagnosis based on what they saw in the child. She feels that at this point an offical DX does not make sense because her child is geting the services he needs.

I would suggest the same thing. You could always get an official DX in the future if need be.

I would get the diagnoses only because in my experience with the school system ( my 9 year old has asperger's adhd combined type mood disorder nos and sensory integration dysfunction ) I could not get him the services he needed for the asperger's ie. the occupational and physical therapy without the diagnoses. the other disorders were addressed "under other health impaired" but once i got the asperger's diagnoses he got the services and upon moving to a new school system we really had to fight and make sure that they recognized that he had been diagnosed and get a case manager through Sweetser to help force the new school system to implement the iep. since it usually takes a fairly long time to even get into a place that does extensive and thorough testing to get the initial diagnoses you may want to at least try setting up and appointment which you will probably need a referral from a pediatrician or a family doctor to do... you can always change your mind before the appointment comes up. I truly believe that with the advances in medicine and the awareness of the disorder that is now coming out a diagnoses will eventually be necessary to receive the services that your child will need. just my opinion. I was 3 years getting a confirmed diagnoses of asperger because in my state ( MAINE ) although there are very good specialists here for the disorder there are not enough of them and there isn't enough awareness of signs to look for in the medical field at this time for a diagnoses to be easily obtained. I ended up taking a book called The ADHD Autism Connection ( I believe that was the title ) into the pediatrician ( after I had gone through the entire book and highlighted where he fit in and where he didn't ... quite a lot as he has both ) and questioning the original ADHD diagnoses and requesting a new evaluation from a qualified child psychologist. I did not mention to the psychologist that I was considering Asperger's in my mind as a possible diagnoses but he ended up with the diagnoseses of the 4 conditions at the end of the testing anyway. feel free to PM me if you want to talk about my experiences with the school system ( or anything else for that matter ) I am always willing to share my experiences with any of you Jaime