Where to go for ASD dx?

[ollijsmama]

A few months ago my 4.5 yr old ds was evaluated for an IEP by school staff. They concluded he "fit the criteria" for ASD. He is high functioning, maybe AS, definitely some SID. Initially my dh and I felt we should give it a year or so (with the therapy and assistance the school system would provide) before deciding whether we should pursue an official diagnosis. After learning more, we've decided not to wait, as we feel we should be starting any therapy he needs sooner, rather than later.

The school professionals (Psychologist, SW, Speech Path.) all recommend Catherine Lord's UMAAC (we're in the Ann Arbor, MI area). We were also given that rec by the encopresis (sp?) specialist we've been seeing. Of course, our insurance will have nothing to do with that, and are recommending their list of general practice psychologists to do an initial 1-2 hour evaluation. Any additional evaluation would have to be recommended by the initial evaluator and preapproved by the ins.co. Our pediatrician's only help was suggesting we ask the encopresis doc, and that only after admitting that he does not know much about the subject, except that he feels its being over diagnosed. (He did admit that our son is very "quirky")

So I guess my question is with what sort of professional did you start you diagnosis journey, and if you are in the A2 area, does any one have any feelings about/experience with UMAAC or other specific professionals?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Kerry

[sbgrace]

No Michigan experience but having recommendations is a good hint. Perhaps those same people could give you opinions of the persons your insurance recommends? You might also contact the autism association there and see if they have recommendations.
I think finding someone good is obviously important (and someone good at evaluating a younger higher functioning child is key in your case). Individual practitioners can be good too.
Our experience at our (Indiana) autism center was a horrible and inaccurate evaluation. Along the lines of he is giving high fives so he can't be on the spectrum. : I know now that they are good at diagnosing classical autism but not higher functioning in younger children. We've had two private psychologists since then that correctly assessed him as PDD-NOS. So big may be good but not necessarily. I think the key for you is whether the person can evaluate "high functioning" at his age. Even a child who will eventually meet the criteria for AS at say 5 or 6 should meet the criteria at younger ages too-just for PDD-NOS instead.
Oh, after my son was diagnosed we still had to have his pediatrician medically diagnose him for insurance purposes. So depending on Michigan law and if you'll be using insurance to pay for therapy you may need an on board pediatrician.

[JohannasGarden]

Have you explored getting the school system to pay for an outside evaluation? There are often some evaluative hoops to jump through, but I think they do have to provide such things if services and/or accommodations are needed.

Sherri

[Fay]

Kerry, I'm pm'ing you about Ann Arbor stuff.

[ollijsmama]

I appreciate the feedback. Good advice about making sure that they are used to dealing with higher functioning kids. DS is one of those kids you have to know to see the issues. Even his grandparents were initially unwilling to accept that his behavior and issues weren't typical (of course my MIL thought/thinks its a parenting issue - not on board with the AP/GD at all...) That was our ped's problem, mainly. Once we really started discussing the issues and the school eval findings he agrees that there is probably something to it. I'm sure he'd support us if we needed referrals, etc. to come from him.

[shelbean91]

We were given our dx by a psychologist.