I've posted in other forums in regards to DD. She has enough going on to warrant a look at Aspergers. I also strongly suspect she may be gifted as well. She's nearly 5 and I'm concerned that she'll be too young for any assessment to be accurate (my understanding is diagnosing girls is a bit harder). Will you share with me the whens and how long it took to accurately diagnose your child? DH and I are on the fence-- there are strong arguments in favor of early intervention, and there is also good reason to hold off and see how she continues to develop...
Assessing kids is tricky. My DD was 13 before we found out how smart she was because her autism was always bigger, and she was unable to participate in the earlier assessments in ways that she could once she had more time to mature.
None the less, I'm glad we did earlier evals. The information that we got from those was very important in understanding her and planning interventions. It's kind of like having your child's portrait taken -- it can't tell you what they will look like when they are grown, but it does provide of representation of them now.
I wouldn't worry so much about the diagnosis. A good eval. will provide a variety of information and insight about your child, that will help you and the school in meeting her needs. I think that especially for kids who are 2E or possibly 2E, the more information, the better.
Early intervention refers to kids who are under 3. You already skipped it. Intervention now isn't "early," it's just intervention.
My son was diagnosed with PDD/NOS at age 3. When he was re evaluated at age 6, the different Neuropsychologist diagnosed him with Aspergers.
With the changes to the DSM 5, they will now only diagnose with Autism Spectrum Disorder and will include the level of 'disability'. A good neuropsych will be able to tell if a child is on the spectrum in any capacity.
My son was diagnosed with PDD/NOS at age 3. When he was re evaluated at age 6, the different Neuropsychologist diagnosed him with Aspergers.
With the changes to the DSM 5, they will now only diagnose with Autism Spectrum Disorder and will include the level of 'disability'. A good neuropsych will be able to tell if a child is on the spectrum in any capacity.
13 but that was only because our prior insurance wouldn't cover an evaluation and we couldn't afford it out of pocket. As soon as I found out it was covered under the new one I got her assessed and now we're trying to catch up for many lost years.
I hear you on the lost years. Knowing sooner, rather than later, is beneficial, whether they can get Early Intervention as a toddler or whether it is just early intervention as in "as early as you know and can intervene." DaughterofKali, good to know about the new DSM. That may be of benefit to her. We're going to chat with her pediatrician and see if we can get her referred to a behavioral/developmental ped to take a peek at what is going on. If not, I may contact the school district for an eval. We homeschool and I would prefer to contact a school as a last measure. Thanks for the input ladies.
The schools generally don't handle those evals as they can not dx anything other then academic/learning disabilities issues. We had to get ours though a psychologist.
My 19 year old was diagnosed when he was 11. After fighting with the schools for years, who wanted to pin ADHD on him at age 5 and after fighting out insurance for almost that long. As soon as we got the diagnosis, he was eligible for an IEP, which helped, however, like mentioned above, all those "lost years", really took their toll.
I took DD to the pediatrician and she saw what I see right away. She'll have her evaluation with a developmental pediatrician April. Hopefully this process will be informative and help us as parents meet her needs as best as we can.
Thanks for everyone's input.
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