Whew... ADOS completed!

[Village Mama]

Just came back from the ADOS assessment process! It has taken years to get to this point for us... Our homelearning group actually paid for this portion of the assessment privately so that we can acess funding sooner ( educational funding since all of the resources in my area are provided through the school system for school aged children). I think it went well... Only got a few hints as to how it went though! It is so nerve wracking to have the assessments hey?  The assessor came out during the break and sat beside me with a totally harried look on her face. Told me that he talks SO much and doesn't at all grasp her cues that she needs to speed things along. She looked exhausted! Haha. The testing took over twice as long as was expected... I suspect he was answering every question with a long monologue. He told me that she asked about things like friendship and he listed off a bunch of " friends".... a couple of which he couldn't remember their names!( he doesn't actually have any close friends at all) He also told me that she tried to engage him with an action figure but he " just changed the subject and wasn't interested in the slightest"! When she asked him about marriage he went into a monologue about how he is unable to predict the future...

Don't know how the scoring all goes. Crossing my fingers that it will all be clear. Really difficult and stressful when you have a really bright kiddo that presents well to most all adults... I guess that is what they are trained for right? ADI-R for us next week. Can't wait for this portion to be done with!

[lauren]

Wow, sounds exhausting! HOpe the next piece goes smoothly.

[FarmerBeth]

One big step taken!  I actually observed my own son's ADOS, and I have to say, it did seem to be a really useful tool to assess a bright kid who can sometimes present as neurotypical. That action figure was a total no-go for my DS, too.  He told her that he was too old for dolls, and that "real action figures" are valuable collectibles and shouldn't be wasted by playing with them.  It really cracked me up. I personally found everyone we dealt with was really well trained and I hope it goes the same for you.

[Piglet68]

Just went through this with DS last month (we got it paid by our homeschool program, too - are you in Self Design?). It was fascinating to see him in this setting. It was hard for him to get through it all but he did. We got our report and diagnosis (high functioning autistic) and are now waiting to have the ped sign off on it so we can access our funding from Ministry of Child and Family Services. Overall the process was a positive one and we are so glad he is going to be getting some help (and us, too!).

[Village Mama]

We are with Self Design too... did you end up going to Nanaimo? I have my fingers crossed too. We could really use some supports! I am so glad to see someone else fairly local going the private route too.... how has that been for you? Has everyone you come across seemed confused about that process?
I didn't stay in the room to observe him at all. Just get these little inklings of how it went as my son remembers questions he was asked... He just told me that when he was asked what was annoying about him he said" the constant mouth noises and humming". It seems like so much of the answers he gave are at least supportive of what we reported anyhow. Gahhhh.

Please keep me updated about your process Piglet! Had you met the Ped you are dealing with before? I am feeling so in the dark ( and anxious ... can you tell?!) about this whole process. It is all a real letting go.

[Piglet68]

Village Mama, we should talk. 

Briefly: yes we went to Nanaimo and it was great - the psychologist was familiar with unschooling via the Self-Design program (they recommended her) so she "got" us and our lifestyle. And yes everyone seems confused about the process, lol. It's like we have a map but we only get a few paces of our route plotted out for us at a time. We get to the end and then another few paces gets plotted out, lol. But we are almost there so now we are about to enter the world of "choose your therapy", lol. Overall it has been a VERY positive experience. 

Got to go make dinner but I will PM you!

[Village Mama]

I am pretty sure that we are working with the same team... and yes , so far it has been such a wonderful experience! I am so happy to have contact with someone else who is doing this too! Yay!

[Village Mama]

We had our educational portion of the assessment last year.... there wasn't anything left in the budget for the ASD portion. We were on the wait list and it looked like an 18 month wait here.... so I am super thankful to go this route. I had one of the coordinators at the Queen Alexandria unit kind of dissuading me about going the private route. She was happy to see the lesser wait time , but was concerned that it wouldn't be recognized by the Ministry. The Ped was pretty flustered that we were going this route too. Gahh! So I tried to research all I could and talk to everyone I could and just crossed my fingers. I liked the Psych that did the educational assessment so much, and liked all of the staff and really was hoping to continue it there. They did such a thorough job on the educational portion and we learned a LOT! ( like a VIQ on the 99.7th percentile and a processing speed in the bottom 1 %) It was such a complicated profile that we have no idea how to approach it. Hoping an ASD diagnosis gives us a good starting point!

[Village Mama]

Piglet... did you guys have a speech language assessment yet? We NEED one here in BC don't we?

[Piglet68]

Not sure if we are talking about the same thing but DS had speech therapy when he was younger b/c he was delayed. They did hearing tests as part of that. He sailed through the therapy and the psychologist for his autism assessment pointed out that he had very good language. However, a portion of the testing was to evaluate language, all aspects including non-verbal communication. He had strengths in some areas but weaknesses in others that were markers for autism. I didn't realize there were so many aspects to it! 

[Village Mama]

The Psych told me that we shouldn't need one for the kids over 6.... just the Ped and her should be sufficient. The younger kids have to have an assessment from a speech language specialist as well. I was starting to panic thinking that there would not be any funding left for yet another assessment through the school... trying to figure out how we could come up with the money for something like that..... or continue waiting another year until we got to our place on the regular waitlist!  Feeling sooooo close to finally having the process completed. I can't wait for this process to be over!! The psych said that he just made the  cutoffs on all of the sections of the ADOS... which is great, because the one on one adult interaction with a highly gifted kiddo is where it is least obvious. She said that it becomes so much more obvious with the Parent interview.