Hello,
My son has recieved his first Diagnoses as being on the autistic spectrum at the age of 3 1/2 yrs old. their was also a concern that he also might be cognitive impaired. When he was young, he had echolaia , and just repeated the last 2 words someone would say. It was dysfuntional speech . He also hand flapped, finger flapped, jumped up and down all the time, very aggressive towards other children , and extremely hyperactive. He recieved services through the school district at the age of 4. He also was placed on medication to calm him down. i had no choice to do this, because he was a danger to himself and other kids.
At the age of 5 1/2 he finally was able to talk in sentences . But, would constantly repeat sentences. One that i never forgot was. "hi whats your name? ' even to his daycare teachers, all of them who he knew for yrs. This was the start of his repeating and obsessing over topics that interests him.
He has been always in special day classess, and his language improved well. He has an incredible rote memory skills. However has cognitive delays in all areas. Which makes him appear younger then he really is.
My son is now 16 years old. He still talks about his own interests , and continues to only go over them forever. For example, if their was an incident that happened a over a yr ago that made an impact on him, he continues to talk and talk about it! I can't get him to switch the subject. He also is fond of dates of movie actors , dates of when they died, dates of when people are born , he can figure out quickly if you tell him how old you are, he knows when your born ! He enjoys movies , all movies , and talks endlessly about them.
The thing is my son can't tell time , and can't make change for a dollar. Yet he can do all those other things.
When he is excited he still flaps his hands, and he will go outside and just spingaround in circles. At school he go into uncotrollable laughter for no reason.
Our regional center set up an appointment to have him evaluated by their psycholgist > and in depth evaluation. I am upset about it. Why now? What if the Psych. Dr. changes his Diagnoses, and just thinks he is cognitive delayed? What are they going to do in the evaluation? My son has all the services he needs, I do not understand?
i understand your concerns and also question why they would need to do an evaluation at your son's age and when all his supports are set in place. my biggest concern would be that they are looking to cut corners. is there any way you can challenge the need to do this evaluation at this time?
I have two autistic children, I have one that is healed and now I am working on the other..... I want to just suggest a book to you..Disconnected Kids. You said a couple of things that Einstein had issues with, He used to play music to help him with Math...consider it...you have nothing to lose
i understand your concerns and also question why they would need to do an evaluation at your son's age and when all his supports are set in place. my biggest concern would be that they are looking to cut corners. is there any way you can challenge the need to do this evaluation at this time?
I talked to the regional case manager, the lady who is in charge of my son's case. She helped me feel better . what she told me is that the Regional Center had not recieved any formal diagnoses regarding my son. even though he has been seen by many speicalists since the age of 3 1/5 yrs old. And has been in SDC classrooms throughout his education . When younger my child was much more difficult , and out of control, now that he is verbal , he is more functional. Even with that, he still is mildly cognitively impaired as well as being some where on the ASD. This is why they want to to the in depth evaluation to find out excatly where he is. I was very upset about the appointment that she made for the evaluation throught the regional center. Mainly because I had not requested one. He had a in depth evaluation made by the Special education School psycholgist done in April. I showed it to the regional center lady. She told me that the school psych. can't diagnose, which I was not looking for one in the first place? He has already had many Dx . And been treated over the years for ASD and in the classrooms for ASD's .
My son talks to a therapist who hs worked with many DD people, and know my kid is on the Autistic spectrum, so does the regional center case manager.
It is agravating to me that he has to be re evaluated once again! However, I do not believe that this DR. is going to find anything new? My son is the way he is and has been for years. I just hope they observe these behaviors too, and see what everyone else already knows too. Placing a child in a completely different environment , with a stranger, well, my son is not going to like it !!!
I was told the evaluation report is going to be several pages long , and will take a while to be completed . I will not even know the results for a while . However, the things that really are obvious and the behaviors that my son always engages in , I hope the DR. wil lat least give me some insight on them. And where my son is on the ASD. I will not be happy if it comes back PDD-NOS. to me that is not a diagnoses at all. PDD -NOS, with cognitive impairments? He is very smart in areas that are of extreme interest to him. But with the Cognitive delays , he is not Aspergers either.
