Autism - Did you know?

[Bastiansmom]

I really have no idea how to say what I am thinking so I will preface this by apologizing for rambling or not making my questions clear.

We had DS7 (1st grade) IEP re-evaluation yesterday afternoon, and the Spec Ed teacher told us that based on her 30-45 minute evaluation (they tested) she thinks he MAY have Autism.

(Side note: he is on an IEP because when he was 4 in in Pre-K he had problems concentrating/ focusing on his work. At the end of that year, we found out he has really poor eyesight and he got glasses. He started K at age 4, (his b-day was 2 days before the cutoff), and went to special ed classes to do most of his work. We decided to repeat K, mostly because of his age, and had to fight for him to be in a regular classroom to do his work. He has excelled in the regular classroom during the 2nd year in K and so far in first grade. The entire purpose of the IEP meeting was for him to "test out")

Back to the Autism statement.. her reasons for thinking he may have autism is because 1. He did make eye-contact with her during their meeting 2. He fidgeted 3. He has poor handwriting/ penmanship. Those are her ONLY reasons.

I've done a some research about this and while her reasons are listed at characteristics of a child with Autism.. can't those also be signs of a child who is nervous and needs to slow down when he is writing?

Wouldn't he always do those things, not just with her? We have never been concerned with him not making eye contact and the only time he fidgets is when he's getting in trouble.

My son is a little "quirky." Not very good at playing sports, but enjoys watching them, really into "scary" stuff like Goosebumps. He does get "into" something and like it for awhile, but doesn't overreact when he can't do it or has to stop. He has developed socially a little later than some kids, but now he is fine. Usually the first one picked in groups, has plently of friends, etc. He is the sweetest kid I have ever known (and I'm not just saying that because he is mine). He really cares about people and hates the idea of anyone being sad or upset. What other things should I look for that may indicate he is on the Autism Spectrum? Do you think these are Austic tendencies or is the Special Ed teacher just "label-happy." As is every kid needs to be labeled.

To those parents of children with Autism (on the Spectrum).. did you always know? Like you couldn't get in his/her brain or reach him/ her?I don't feel that way at all about my DS7, but I also don't want to be naive about the situation.

PS (this is just me bragging ) One of the sections on the evaluation she gave him was "Factual Knowledge," questions about science, humanities, social studies, etc. He was 1st grade, 5 month and tested at 3rd grade 5 month level. She said he tested higher than any kid she has ever tested. That makes me really proud!

 

[TupperMom7]

You should post this question up above in the disAbilities Community Board as it does not pertain to WDW, but here is what I think.

My son went to kindergarten when he was 4 also. He was easily distracted, had trouble writing, and did not do well. The teacher thought he may have epilepsy and was suffering grand mall (sp?) seizures because he would stare out the window! We took him to the Dr. and he did not have epilepsy. He attended pre-primary the next year and that teacher thought he needed glasses. We took him to the eye Dr. and he did not need glasses. The next year he went to first grade and they were convinced he had ADD no hyperactivity. We took him to a psychologist and he did not have ADD. My point is, the teachers - even the special ed. teachers - are not Dr.s. They really have no right to say anything to you about their suspicions especially when they have no degree in that area.

I would take my son to the pediatrician. Make sure you tell them when you make the appointment what it is for so they allow enough time to talk to you and your son. If your Dr. feels there is a reason to suspect autism, he/she will forward you to a specialist. You should take him to his pediatrician to ease your mind, not to confirm what the teacher thinks.

 

[Bastiansmom]

Do I need to delete this post or just re-post?

 

[turkeymama]

The bolded parts are mine.

I really have no idea how to say what I am thinking so I will preface this by apologizing for rambling or not making my questions clear.

We had DS7 (1st grade) IEP re-evaluation yesterday afternoon, and the Spec Ed teacher told us that based on her 30-45 minute evaluation (they tested) she thinks he MAY have Autism.

Surely she is planning on doing more than this 30-45 minute evaluation. She may well have legitimate "suspicion" that he could be on the spectrum, but there is a very thorough battery of tests that will need to be conducted in order for them to give him this label for IEP purposes.


(Side note: he is on an IEP because when he was 4 in in Pre-K he had problems concentrating/ focusing on his work. At the end of that year, we found out he has really poor eyesight and he got glasses. He started K at age 4, (his b-day was 2 days before the cutoff), and went to special ed classes to do most of his work. We decided to repeat K, mostly because of his age, and had to fight for him to be in a regular classroom to do his work. He has excelled in the regular classroom during the 2nd year in K and so far in first grade. The entire purpose of the IEP meeting was for him to "test out")

So far, this sounds similar to my autistic son, with the exception of the poor eyesight (that we know of). My son will need to repeat kindy, we just haven't gotten the official word on that yet.


Back to the Autism statement.. her reasons for thinking he may have autism is because 1. He did make eye-contact with her during their meeting 2. He fidgeted 3. He has poor handwriting/ penmanship. Those are her ONLY reasons.

I've done a some research about this and while her reasons are listed at characteristics of a child with Autism.. can't those also be signs of a child who is nervous and needs to slow down when he is writing?

Maybe, maybe not. Without a full re-evaluation, even she won't know. And as you already know, she won't be the only one conducting the eval. There should be a whole IEP team involved.


Wouldn't he always do those things, not just with her? We have never been concerned with him not making eye contact and the only time he fidgets is when he's getting in trouble.

My son does make eye contact with us, but not consistently. He rarely makes eye contact with teachers or peers at school. Or, he could just be nervous or distracted.


My son is a little "quirky." Not very good at playing sports, but enjoys watching them, really into "scary" stuff like Goosebumps. He does get "into" something and like it for awhile, but doesn't overreact when he can't do it or has to stop. He has developed socially a little later than some kids, but now he is fine. Usually the first one picked in groups, has plently of friends, etc. He is the sweetest kid I have ever known (and I'm not just saying that because he is mine). He really cares about people and hates the idea of anyone being sad or upset. What other things should I look for that may indicate he is on the Autism Spectrum? Do you think these are Austic tendencies or is the Special Ed teacher just "label-happy." As is every kid needs to be labeled.

Again, this sounds an awful lot like my little man. I'm not saying this to upset you, but it was just my first reaction. It may mean nothing.


To those parents of children with Autism (on the Spectrum).. did you always know? Like you couldn't get in his/her brain or reach him/ her?I don't feel that way at all about my DS7, but I also don't want to be naive about the situation.

Yes, I always knew something wasn't right with him. Even when he was born, I knew something was not normal. Everyone around me was in total denial and kept me from seeking help for him until he was over 2 years old. I will regret that decision until the day I die. I could have gotten much earlier intervention for him and maybe he would be doing better today. I don't know, but that's what I have to live with. My husband and in-laws were very scared of the "label".

PS (this is just me bragging ) One of the sections on the evaluation she gave him was "Factual Knowledge," questions about science, humanities, social studies, etc. He was 1st grade, 5 month and tested at 3rd grade 5 month level. She said he tested higher than any kid she has ever tested. That makes me really proud!

Autistic children can range from above-average to slightly below-average intelligence.

There is always a possibility of finding a label-happy special education teacher, but I firmly believe that most of them have the best of intentions. I have heard that the schools receive more special ed money for an autistic kid versus a kid with Aspergers, for example.

On a personal level, I embraced the autism label from the school because I know the school label is completely different than what a psychologist would diagnosis him with. In the case of a school label, the autism label affords him more therapy, more services, and more one-on-one intervention at school, which he desperately needs. In a nutshell, the school label means very little outside of the school. And at their young age, the social stigma that comes with the labels just isn't there.

So I have a question. Did they do an actual re-evaluation, or was just the annual review for the IEP? The evaluations are good for 3 years, so the schools won't typically do a new one unless you really fight for it, or unless they see some drastic change in the student that would warrant. Those evals take a lot of time and resources, nevermind that they are extremely taxing for the student.

 

[jmartinez1895]

I would take the child to your pediatrician and talk to him first. To me ( not a medical professional, but a mom of 3 with ADD/ ADHD it seems he could have a form of ADD. My son's handwriting is awful when he is not taking his meds. As I siad all 3 of my children have some form of ADD and one of them will not look at people when they talk to them for a while because she starts daydreaming, unless she is on her meds. I would not take one persons quickie diagnossis. Please chekc with your doctor, push for the school to do further testing and maybe even find a therapist in your area that can do independent testing as well. I hope this may help you out some and I hope that you can get every thing work out.

 

[SueM in MN]

I've been busy and didn't get this moved, but am moving it now to the disABILITIES Community Board.

My comment would be that all of these things are syndromes - many syndromes share signs and symptoms. And, some of things can be totally normal or based on the situation.

 

[MDDisneyDevotee]

There is no way I would let school personnel make a diagnosis of autism. First of all, a diagnosis of classic autism is typically made when the child is very young and one of the hallmarks is severely delayed speech development. Now maybe high-functioning autism or Asperger's, but really, a teacher is not qualified to make these kinds of diagnoses. I would (and did for my son) find a good developmental pediatrician for a thorough evaluation which takes many hours, usually over the course of several days to complete...not 30 minutes.

On a personal note, I did not know that my son would be labeled on the spectrum initially, but did know he was different (in both good and bad ways) pretty much always. When his preschool teacher mentioned concerns about his behavior I took him to be evaluated and this possibly actually complicated and delayed his eventual diagnosis of Asperger's which we did not have until he was nine.

When he was initially evaluated at 4 he tested as highly gifted (his IQ scores put him into the 99.9th percentile) and he was diagnosed as having Sensory Integration Disorder. I mention his specific IQ not to impress, but to point out how complicated getting a proper diagnosis can be. Many of his 'quirks' were attributed to his very high IQ, when in reality there were other issues. Later it became obvious that IQ alone was not the only factor when he was placed in a classroom for highly gifted children and that did not solve all of his issues. It was then that we went to the developmental pediatrician who did an incredibly thorough retesting and behavioral assessment that we got the diagnosis of Asperger's.

Please know that even though my son is on the spectrum he NEVER had any isssue with avoiding eye contact, has always wanted and sought out friendships, and has always sought out people to share things of interest with so don't let anyone tell you these things must be present in order for someone to be on the spectrum.

What my son does have is intense interests (his happen to be very academic in nature), but they are not always the same from month-to-month and year-to-year, though whichever it is consumes most of his waking hours. He will tend to talk 'at people' for extended periods of time and still needs to be reminded that not everyone can take an hour long lecture on Chaos Theory or whatever happens to be on his mind.

He does have issues with handwriting, he has issues with attention (when it is a task not of his choosing...though this is getting better as he ages), he has trouble maintaining friendships because of his tendency to want to control play and topics of conversation, he has trouble with transitions and, because of some pretty severe bullying at school, he now deals with some pretty bad self-esteem issues as well.

My DS is now 13 and homeschooled because his combination of ability and disability make regular school a difficult proposition to say the least and because we have a large community of homeschoolers here he gets plenty of social interaction. In fact his best friend is another gifted (this boy is profoundly gifted in the area of mathematics) kid with Asperger's. This boy also had issues with incorrect diagnoses early on.

Not sure if any of this helps you, but thought I would share. I just know for sure I would not allow school staff to make this kind of diagnosis. I would get to a well-qualified medical professional for that.

Good luck and know that whatever the eventual label, you can (and will) do the best for your son by being a careful observer of what works for you child and what he needs help with, researching what works for others with similar issues/strengths and by helping your son to learn early to advocate for himself. As my son has matured I find myself thinking less and less of the labels. We all have our own profile of strengths and weaknesses, and we all need to learn to leverage the strengths to compensate for the areas we aren't so strong in.

Keep us posted...

 

[jodifla]

I really have no idea how to say what I am thinking so I will preface this by apologizing for rambling or not making my questions clear.

We had DS7 (1st grade) IEP re-evaluation yesterday afternoon, and the Spec Ed teacher told us that based on her 30-45 minute evaluation (they tested) she thinks he MAY have Autism.

(Side note: he is on an IEP because when he was 4 in in Pre-K he had problems concentrating/ focusing on his work. At the end of that year, we found out he has really poor eyesight and he got glasses. He started K at age 4, (his b-day was 2 days before the cutoff), and went to special ed classes to do most of his work. We decided to repeat K, mostly because of his age, and had to fight for him to be in a regular classroom to do his work. He has excelled in the regular classroom during the 2nd year in K and so far in first grade. The entire purpose of the IEP meeting was for him to "test out")

Back to the Autism statement.. her reasons for thinking he may have autism is because 1. He did make eye-contact with her during their meeting 2. He fidgeted 3. He has poor handwriting/ penmanship. Those are her ONLY reasons.

I've done a some research about this and while her reasons are listed at characteristics of a child with Autism.. can't those also be signs of a child who is nervous and needs to slow down when he is writing?

Wouldn't he always do those things, not just with her? We have never been concerned with him not making eye contact and the only time he fidgets is when he's getting in trouble.

My son is a little "quirky." Not very good at playing sports, but enjoys watching them, really into "scary" stuff like Goosebumps. He does get "into" something and like it for awhile, but doesn't overreact when he can't do it or has to stop. He has developed socially a little later than some kids, but now he is fine. Usually the first one picked in groups, has plently of friends, etc. He is the sweetest kid I have ever known (and I'm not just saying that because he is mine). He really cares about people and hates the idea of anyone being sad or upset. What other things should I look for that may indicate he is on the Autism Spectrum? Do you think these are Austic tendencies or is the Special Ed teacher just "label-happy." As is every kid needs to be labeled.

To those parents of children with Autism (on the Spectrum).. did you always know? Like you couldn't get in his/her brain or reach him/ her?I don't feel that way at all about my DS7, but I also don't want to be naive about the situation.

PS (this is just me bragging ) One of the sections on the evaluation she gave him was "Factual Knowledge," questions about science, humanities, social studies, etc. He was 1st grade, 5 month and tested at 3rd grade 5 month level. She said he tested higher than any kid she has ever tested. That makes me really proud!

The special ed teacher isn't qualified to do make this diagnosis (although it gives you some insight into the exploding numbers of kids allegedly "on the spectrum.")

Only an eval from a professional who has EVERY DX on the table (it's called a differential diagnosis) should be making this call. An eval will take HOURS and HOURS, not minutes.

And yes, lots of people WON'T make eye contact with someone who makes them nervous. DUHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

[starnightstarsky2000]

OP,
While many people are saying not to trust the teacher due to her not having a Dr added onto her name I have a different story. My DS has had "problems" that looking back are clearly on the Autism Spectrum from the time he was born. However my MIL who DOES have a Dr in Sp Ed keep telling me my son was just "gifted" and that gifted kids have quirks. But I knew it was more then that however it was his 2nd grade teacher during yet another "testing period of meds" for my son (that at 2nd grade had been misdiagnosed ADHD (for a kid who can sit at a computer for 8 hours at a time (shakes head at naive now) that she called me into her office and at the risk of losing her job she "hinted" that we really should look at getting him tested for Aspergers and we did. And she was completely correct, my DS is now 9 and while he is still the wonderful quirky child he has always been we now know what things to watch for to prevent a melt down from frustration. As well as he is in the gifted program at his school which allows him to take classes of what he is most into and therefore there isn't a fight to get him to do assignments that were too easy for him. So like others before me I agree that you should take your DS to get tested and not to be worried about what label he will been given(if he does indeed need one).

 

[jodifla]

The bolded parts are mine.



Autistic children can range from above-average to slightly below-average intelligence.

There is always a possibility of finding a label-happy special education teacher, but I firmly believe that most of them have the best of intentions. I have heard that the schools receive more special ed money for an autistic kid versus a kid with Aspergers, for example.

On a personal level, I embraced the autism label from the school because I know the school label is completely different than what a psychologist would diagnosis him with. In the case of a school label, the autism label affords him more therapy, more services, and more one-on-one intervention at school, which he desperately needs. In a nutshell, the school label means very little outside of the school. And at their young age, the social stigma that comes with the labels just isn't there.

So I have a question. Did they do an actual re-evaluation, or was just the annual review for the IEP? The evaluations are good for 3 years, so the schools won't typically do a new one unless you really fight for it, or unless they see some drastic change in the student that would warrant. Those evals take a lot of time and resources, nevermind that they are extremely taxing for the student.

One note, I got all these things for my DS, without the autism label (because that's not what he has, according to four different assessments .) Any of the 13 labels gets you ALL the help you need.

My son has a language impairment label, and it comes with speech, OT, an aide, and push in and pullouts as needed.

It can be a very bad idea to have an autism label if you don't have autism, I've found. Our district and many others will use it as an excuse to put kids in self-contained classes, and it's hard to get them out. I also know of parents who've had to get lawyers involved when they initially agreed with an autism assessment, only to realize after more research that's not what they were dealing with.

You always have to watch out for the school's agenda. They tend to do the easiest thing for them, not the best thing for the child.

 

[iwrbnd]

I have 2 boys on the spectrum and they are completely different! So, remember your child can still be autistic and not be like others you read about. .

Child #1....poor self-help skills (dressing self/planning ahead), poor "active memory" but excellent "rote memory" (in kindergarten could name
continents/presidents/capitals but not remember where his shoes were), late talker,sensory issues, some tics, eating issues, poor handwriting, sleep issues, diagnosed with innatentive ADD in 1st grade and finally aspergers in high school. He has friends and doesn't stand out but under the surface it's still there. He is very literal and has no filter when he talks and doesn't think how his actions affect others. (Think Dr. House on "House")

Child #2...late talker and diagnosed with autism at age 3. Always extremely loving and would play with other children. He taught himself to read at age 3 yrs, could play the Nintendo like an adult, had sensory issues, eating issues and sleep issues. He also doesn't stand out as different but under the surface is. He's now in 5th grade and is a whiz at math & piano. He's not coordinated so quit sports at 3rd grade. He's still loving and thinks of others but talks very formal. (Think Sheldon in "The Big Bang Theory")

Hope this helps to see how different yet similiar they can be. Good luck with your son!

 

[turkeymama]

One note, I got all these things for my DS, without the autism label (because that's not what he has, according to four different assessments .) Any of the 13 labels gets you ALL the help you need.

My son has a language impairment label, and it comes with speech, OT, an aide, and push in and pullouts as needed.

It can be a very bad idea to have an autism label if you don't have autism, I've found. Our district and many others will use it as an excuse to put kids in self-contained classes, and it's hard to get them out. I also know of parents who've had to get lawyers involved when they initially agreed with an autism assessment, only to realize after more research that's not what they were dealing with.

You always have to watch out for the school's agenda. They tend to do the easiest thing for them, not the best thing for the child.

In my experience, the school districts that we have dealt with simply don't have the resources for that many self-contained classes. For that reason, it can actually be more difficult to get all the services that the children qualify for. Also, my son was in a self-contained classroom last year for PreK. They had no problem letting him "out" and putting him in a regular education classroom this year.

I don't think the schools have agendas, but they are held to so many regulations and laws, and everything has to fit into all these categories for the purposes of assessment, record-keeping, liability, and yes, funding. It's almost like their hands are tied and they know a kid needs services, so they have to put some sort of label on that paper. I agree that parents have to stay on top of things, though. Not all school systems are following the regulations set forth in IDEA, the parish next door to us is just one of them. They are currently under investigation and being sued for failing to provide services to students with IEPs.

 

[C&G'sMama]

OP
Another mom of an Aspie weighing in here. It couldn't hurt to get it checked out and have formal testing done. It can be done through school and as another poster mentioned you might want to get a referral to a developmental pediatrician.

Did we know? Yes when he was 2 1/2 or 3 we knew there was something. But everyone said "he's fine". He's smart, like your brothers, he's immature, you're not hard enough on him etc. etc. etc. It was his pre-K teacher that approached us in December when we was 4 1/2 and said, "Hey, this is what I've been observing" Would you mind if I contacted the district for testing" So she did and he was diagnosed as having Aspergers Syndrome. He's 6 1/2 and in first grade now. When he was first diagnosed he received speech, PT and OT. He is now in PT and OT and will be dropping the PT at the end of this school year.

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Ask a couple of close friends or relatives who you trust if they've ever noticed anything. Sometimes people think something's off and don't want to offend you. Or has someone said something to you in the past and you've shrugged it off?

It can't hurt to get it checked out.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[deerhart]

I really have no idea how to say what I am thinking so I will preface this by apologizing for rambling or not making my questions clear.

We had DS7 (1st grade) IEP re-evaluation yesterday afternoon, and the Spec Ed teacher told us that based on her 30-45 minute evaluation (they tested) she thinks he MAY have Autism.

(Side note: he is on an IEP because when he was 4 in in Pre-K he had problems concentrating/ focusing on his work. At the end of that year, we found out he has really poor eyesight and he got glasses. He started K at age 4, (his b-day was 2 days before the cutoff), and went to special ed classes to do most of his work. We decided to repeat K, mostly because of his age, and had to fight for him to be in a regular classroom to do his work. He has excelled in the regular classroom during the 2nd year in K and so far in first grade. The entire purpose of the IEP meeting was for him to "test out")

Back to the Autism statement.. her reasons for thinking he may have autism is because 1. He did make eye-contact with her during their meeting 2. He fidgeted 3. He has poor handwriting/ penmanship. Those are her ONLY reasons.

NO NO NO NO NO

Unless the person even suggesting that a child is ANYTHING can properly connect what they are seeing with the DSM IV or other diagnostic criteria, then they are not making a diagnosis based on FACTS they are making it based on gut feelings or how similar the child is to others they knew diagnosed with whatever.

We had a speech pathologist do this to us with our son and a developmental ped who after 15 minutes (of which my son clearly engaged him socially over and over) made an offhanded PDD-NOS diagnosis. My son did not make eye contact, had a speech delay, was moderately socially delayed, hyperactive and fidgeting, engaged in echolalia, had obsessions (he would do the same thing over and over and over again then suddenly switch to something else rinse and repeat) but had no self stimulating behaviors.

He was never autistic. He has ADHD-HI (hyperactivity) a mixed expressive-receptive speech delay (issues with speech and talking), and has a Central Auditory processing disorder. The CAPD explained a TON of things, including the lack of eye contact (he was trying to lip read), the speech delay, the echolalia (as his deficits were in auditory memory so he had to repeat things over and over to get them to process, further he memorized EVERYTHING verbal to compensate for not being able to understand it when he heard it), his inability to repeat things properly off of a non-pure source (tv, telephone, radio etc), the obsessions (as he was memorizing things), acting deaf with crowds (he also has problems with background noise) and his loud voice (again it is connected to the back ground noise problems).

1 year after doing the CAPD diagnosis and remediation for that, there hasn't been a single mention of him being autistic (even with his SPED teacher convinced he would eventually turn out to be an aspie) and he has gone from a full time aide in Kindy to less then 10% sped time in 4th grade (and 60 minutes of that each week is speech).

I always recommend a neuropsych evaluation for things like this. Your son could have something as simple as combined type ADHD. This would explain all three things she observed. Combined type is both inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive. Many hyperactive kids have extremely messy handwriting (some inattentive types do as well), many kids with ADHD do miss eye contact or have poorer social skills because they are missing clues and hints either do to being inattentive OR because they and their brains are moving so fast due to the hyperactivity (often they are thinking several steps ahead) also with inattentive type, the eyes will wander to all the OTHER distractions in the room and really in a typical school room there are TONS of visual distractions everywhere. Finally, almost ALL kids with ADHD fidget like crazy. I have two of them and OMG if they have nothing to do its insane, usually just putting something in their hands helps but not always.