Asberger, ODD, or Bipolar???

[mb_uh]

Okay, I am just not sure what to do or think, ironically, I am a SPED Adminstrator (not diagnostician) and I have a kid with issues.

Son was born 39 weeks, normal healthy, he has a cleft lip which interfered with feeding and he would only take certain bottles, he refused eye contact with my mom who was loud, he did not sleep much even as a newborn.

Next 2 years generally okay, required lots of supervision, big mouther- choked on ribbons sown on bears, buckles on shoes- items we never thought he could get off. Normal or early walking talking, etc.

By 3 defianant, refused to tell you colors he knew, BAD TANTRUMS- "I hate you" grandma stopped watching him. He is also a very picky eater, and is the kind that will starve if he can not have what he wants. Severe sleeping issues 2-3 hours of another story, more water, or I will scream. Very hyper.

Started seeing psychiatrist put on seroquel, and focalin.
Switched to seroquel concerta. ADD behaviors improved, mood over all improved. Sleeping improved.

Eventually we moved to resperidal and concerta. Appetite is a really issue and he is in 5% for weight even though doctors never seem to care .

Overall he has been hard to manage but doable. He started kindergarden and he is good at school. This year in 1st has been harder. He has focus issues. Night time is getting worse, outburts are bad.

In the morning he refuses to get out of bed, put on his clothes, I frequently have to dress him- he is 7, his room is a mess, he loses everything. He screams at me mostly- "I hate you", "I want to kill you"

School- okay, bad if I forget meds.

Afterschool- easily upset, crys or screams if he does not get his way, violent towards me and his sister (4). Very tempermental. Often refuses to eat much at night.

During the night he gets up- a lot wanders around, started eating chips, candy which he takes to his room and bed. We put locks on kitchen and he searches for the key and sometimes finds it and breaks in.

New psychiatrist is thinking bipolar and we started lithium last month but I really can not tell much difference only minor improvement and nights are just as bad a before.

He has weird quirks that make me wonder- issues communicating, he will ramble on and get mad if interupted. He frequently says that you do not understand. Every once awhile he will talk for excessive periods of time 3-4 hours almost nonstop. He is scared or anxious about everything, especially weather. He is extemely definant or tells me that I am going to get in trouble for not letting him have his way. He hates to be alone. He wants to be in the room you are no matter what, unless he is hiding something. He is very shy around new people and has a high fear of getting introuble at school. He does not really have close friends but does seem to have friends. Sometimes he is OVERLY silly and talks about things that inappropriate.

I am really at my wits end. Each day seems to be getting harder. And it has gotten much worse in the past year. I work fulltime, as does DH and we have 2 other kids. I am just not sure and I am starting to wonder if this is really bipolar. He does not respond to rewards, consequences these will not deter bad behavior or encourage good behavior. he is better when my husband is home- he is more forceful but he still acts out. He seems unhappy a lot. The school does not see any major issues other then his focus.

Any advice would be welcomed.

 

[bookwormde]

Oh my god run as far and as fast from this psychiatrist as you can.

He is an aspie, it is amazing he is doing as well as he is undiagnosed and on contraindicated medications.

The best thing you can do right away is to educate yourself. Order a copy of Tony Attwoods the complete guide to Aspergers tonight from Amazon ($17) and read it ASAP.

I am assuming that he has never recieved a proper evalution for Autism genetics (WPS SRS evaluation, auditory processing evaluation, sensory profile evaluation etc) only major centers who have special departments are fully qualified

Congratulations you have an amazing child and once you get the support you need the changes can be amazing and his gift will blossum.

The alphabet soup you are seeing now is typcial for undiagnosed kids and is all maladaptive manefestation that dimish to a major degree as soon as you and your child's clinicians nad educators "get it".

bookwormde

 

[mb_uh]

Okay here is the big problem- everyone around me except dh, grandma, and teacher think he is normal. He is bright, quiet, conversational with others or shy.

I work with 5 diagnosticians that see him everyday after school including our autism team who seem to believe that if kids do not manifest the issue at school they are not autistic. Teacher's biggest issue is attention and the concerta helps a lot. We are all miserable when he does not have it. Risperdal helped when he was young-mood improved. We have bipolar in the family and he has ALL of the traits on the lists for kids with bipolar.

But I have wondered asbergers on and off since 3.

He does this thing where he is talking and gets hung up on a thought but can not think of the word and if you try to move him along he gets more and more angry or will keep stuttering uh,and. Again my collegues have seen this but are not concerned.

Thanks for the suggestions, we moved to a small town and finding doctors is hard without driving 4 hours. Actually this is 3rd psychiatrist- none have been great.

 

[bookwormde]

Every item you add about your child, just solidifies the probabilty that he is Aspergers, they are all complety typical and classic for you child's situation.

A 4 hour dirive in well worth the effort. It is clear that you are surrounded by people who have no understanding and compitancy with Aspergers, sorry.

Psychiatrists receive virtually no training is Aspergers and do and unbelivable amount of damage because of this,actually less that 5% of all clinicians even have the most basic training. I sure other parnets will chime in but you have to become the specialist. The difference this will make in you child's life and addtionally of many of the special education students who you are charges with supplying FAPE for will be the greatest legacy you can create.

You might want to contact the Kennedy Kreigner center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, if you have the means to get an evaluation there. Also get an WPS SRS evalaution done for your child and that will be the best first step and in non invasive since it is a questionare like conners. IF by chance your dictrict does not have it then you really need to take a deep look at your IDEA program as a whole. Any proper school/district IDEA training library should have several copies if the book I refernenced (make sure it is the 2007 copyright version).

If yuo have any question along the way please feel free to ask, we also have several parents from Texas who may have informations for you, and I am sure they will be along in time to help

bookwormde

 

[mb_uh]

Thanks.

We could take him to Dallas, I have heard there are several specialist there. I have always ignored this possiblity since he plays with other kids and talks to people. But when I read posts on here about kids that are Asperbers I see my child quite frequently which has caused me to start doubting .

It is just so confusing because I just talked to the school counselor who told me he seems happy at school. She is willing to watch him and give me more support.

What does the school do that helps kids that are being successful? I am SPED certified and work in this field but honestly I am not sure what the school can do for a kid that is behaving and getting good grades in a regular class. He is only in 1st grade but he reads very well, high TPRI scores and A's or B's in classwork. IQ was tested last year at 100 which I think is low, probably due to ADD issues, etc.

I conduct 140 PLUS IEP meetings a year, but I have no clue as to what he might need since he is doing well. He is not in SPED because I have never asked since he is doing well. I will get anything I want since I work directly under and I am friends with our SPED Director but I never really thought there was very much the school could do. We are usually just grateful the kid is behaving and getting good grades.

 

[mb_uh]

We went to psychiatrist today and he acted up the entire time- which is weird he used to be a perfect statue at drs office. On his own doctor is requesting psychological testing- epsecially- AUTISM. I am just having trouble with the fact that no one else sees this

 

[chskover]

My daughter who is 23 and expecting twins is an Asperger child. We went many years with mis-diagnosis and not until she was 16 did they finally tell me she had aspergers. The concerta is what they prescribed and is something she continues to take which she prefers to stay on. She says she feels much better. (She is currently off because of the preg) She was on ritalin until 6th grade when it stopped working. They (psyciatrist) then tried anti depressants for bi-polar and anxiety. Those were the worst years ever! They did not help but made things worse and her behavior became a major issue. I switched to a clinic that specializes in behavior issue children. They were the ones that helped lead me and my daughter in the right direction.

Good Luck

 

[persimmondeb]

I would try to get him seen by a neurologist or developmental pediatrician in addition to the psychiatrist, if for no other reason than that they have a somewhat different perspective, and are looking for different things, which is always useful. Unfortunately none of this stuff seems to be a precise science, and of course, children are children and do not always oblige us by fitting into neat categories.

Still, you should be able to find a course of treatment/strategies that work better for you than the current ones seem to. The precise diagnosis matters a lot less than whether or not what they are doing is beneficial.

My DS14 currently has an Asperger's diagnosis, although he is somewhat atypical, and has a secondary diagnosis of suspected Soto's (no test-and the jury is out a little bit). We've been Special Ed pretty much all the way since he needs a small class and controlled environment, despite doing well in school.

I am wondering a little bit about the cranky in the morning, rummaging around in the middle of the night in search of food pattern. Could the ADHD medications be throwing off his eat/sleep patterns? We've never noticed a difference with DS, who'll eat anything not nailed down, and is one of those Aspies for whom there are only "interesting" tastes, but I know they can be kind of notorious for suppressing appetite. On a practical note, if you left a reasonably nutritious snack prepared for him, and just locked up the goodies, do you think he'd eat it during the nocturnal wanderings?

 

[bookwormde]

For school (and otherplaces) there are 4 primary areas that need to be addressed, first is an enviroment where the differences and gifts are understood and supported which greatly reduces anxiety. Then as a part of this the social skills diffentials must be understood and skills taught, for "delf adapters" these can on the surface be quite subtle. Sensory differnetial also need to be checked and adapted for. Third if the EF (executive function) differentials. Ouy kids are typically non linear their congnitive style (visual for example) and non discriminatory (both socially and intellectually).

It is hard to give a breif understaning but once you geet done reading Attwood I can offer lot of other texts that can help. I am well past 3000 hours of reading and study and I learn new things every day about Aseprgers

bookwormde