Now that my son is in preschool, issues have become oh so much worse. I always knew from the time I started taking him to the library at 4 months old, he was a little different. I think he has mild Asperger's, or other high functioning PDD.
Do any of you have any recommendations of where to get him evaluated?
What are the best things to do? (Current therapies, etc..) I've read about some left/right brain training, and I know some do special diets... like the gluten/casien free diet.... what works for any of you out there in this situation... with an above average intelligent mild PDD..
I know he has some sensory issues, like hypersensitive hearing.
Thank you.
D.
Updates:
PS: As far as Jenni G's comment: No, I am not just going by the sensory issues, but I was trying to keep this short...I had one post where I apparently said too much and people just got side tracked on something they assumed that was not true.
As far as Laura G's concern, I went to a new Pediatrician when Drew was 2. At that time we were doing speech therapy, and while some things seemed odd, it was still assumed to be normal. I had several problems with our previous pediatrician.
We went to Kennedy Krieger, and my son does not fall in the ASD or ADHD, or any other big group, however he does have a lot of related problems. The therapist recommended we see a speech therapist again, try to find a social skills group for his social issues, and an occupational therapist for his sensory issues, to to behavior psych. for a few other small issues. She also recommended several books to read about "Strong-willed children." Apparently my son is an outlier for having a very strong will, and he will not respond to the average parenting methods. (I myself have never seen a child even similar to my son in thousands of kids). So I have a very smart, but very difficult child, that I love and want to help. Thank you for all the recommendations and thoughts.
Where are you located? I'm a big fan of Johns Hopkins, but you can probably find a local hospital that has a specialized department for that, if you're in a large city. My cousin has Asperger's, and his parents really just approached it with a little extra patience, and focus on the academic and social things that came less easily to him.
As for evaluations, the best places in our area are Kennedy Krieger in Baltimore and Children's Hospital (Dr. Penny Glass of the Development program) in DC. These private evaluations are expensive and take a long time to get an appt so be advised. Check with insurance to find out what they will and won't cover. I would also recommend that you dual track and get an evaluation from your county. If you live in Montgomery County, for example, children 0-3 are evaluated by the Infants and Toddlers Program. Also, make sure to check in with your pediatrician. I cannot emphasize how important a good evaluation is. It is worth the money for sure. The reason to dual track is just in case you get disagreement in the two reports. These reports will guide what sort of services you can get from your county/city. The evaluation from your county is free but you may have to wait a while for it so call right away and get on the list. There may be a lot of disagreement about what issues your child has (or there may not be) but the one thing everyone agrees upon is that early intervention is absolutely critical. Do not waste another moment. Call and line of these appointments and then call your insurance company. Best of luck to you!
I am a pediatric occupational therapist and I used to be on the Autism Diagnosis Team at a hospital in Oregon. Here are a couple of suggestions. If you feel your child is more likely high functioning or Aspergers then you might want a team evaluation where they will do a standardized evaluation specifically looking at social connectedness (the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale) rather than do a developmental pediatrician where they will do observation and parent questionnaire. The team typically involves a psychologist, speech pathologist, developmental pediatrician and possibly an occupational therapist. The best place in the DC area to go is Keenedy Kruger in Baltimore. They are one of the best in the US. I believe DC Children's does Autism evals, but I am not sure the quality and if they are a team evaluation or not. Please feel free to send me a message if you have more questions or concerns especially regarding sensory processing.
At your child's 18 month check up (or around age 2), your pediatrician should have done an initial screening for autism-spectrum behavior. Do you remember reviewing a checklist of behaviors?
Most county school systems offer PT and OT programs to children who fall on the spectrum. I'd examine specialized programs in addition to regular preschools. When my friend's daughter was diagnosed with sensory issues, she was going to a play-based preschool two times a week and a PEP program (specialized preschool for students with special needs) the other three days.
Most regular preschools will not be equipped with the personnel, materials and strategies to help kids on the spectrum.
My youngest son has aspergers, adhd and anxiety. We tried all the diet stuff with zero change so we went back to eating regular.
One of the suggestions I can make is to find a GOOD (and this may or may not take trial and error) is a developemental pediatrian. Someone who specializes in diagnosing and treating these kinds of issues.
We are using medication along with behavior modification. We are working with him to help him grasp some of the "social cues" that kids with this issue tend to miss. We also have to modify OUR behavior and how we deal with his needs while still establishing rules and boundaries for him and his siblings.
The first step though would be to get him fully evaluated by a specialist to know exactly what's going on or not going on as the case may be.
Feel free to message me if you need more information.
My four year old has PDD-NOS and she is highly functioning thanks to the awesome program from prince Georges County Public School District. I have the number if you want it. Most of the therapist and teachers are from James Ryder Randall Elementary. They will come to your home and "play" with him and ask you some questions. When I say "play" I mean they have some toys and activities for him to do so they can evaluate him. They will tell you if you are eligible for services on the spot. If they suspect that he is on the Autism spectrum they will tell you. If they feel that he is, you will need to go to your doctor and ask for a referal to get him "officially" tested. If you need the phone number please message me and I will give it to you!
I don't believe in the gluten/casein free diet would be helpful for my daughter. Some kids are on that diet due to an allergy to gluton or casein. Ask your doctor before you make any big diet decisions.
My daughter has hypersensitive hearing too. Before I turn on the vacume I ahve to tell her. then we count to ten while she runs upstairs to her room and closes the door. When i vacume upstairs, she will hide in her bathroom. if something starts to bother her, she always has a hideout. Usually her room. You just have to learn his triggers and figure out what works for him.
As for therapy, my daughter is in speech therapy. In the past year, her language has done a complete 180! Like i said before, she has some awesome teachers working with her. Since she is 4 she goes to school from 9-3:30 everyday and loves it. When she was 3 she went half days.
Please contact me and let me know what happens! If you have any other questions, let me know!
The state of MD has Child Find that should evaluate him. Look them up on the State of MD website or your local board of education website.
I would definitely go back to your pediatrician. My best friend went through the exact same thing with her son, they "watched" him when he was two, a few months later when she pushed, they evaluated him (similar concerns) and diagnosed PDD-and gave him intense therapy, speech, sensory and motor coordination skills, telling her he would grow out of it with the therapies. A year after than-around 3 1/2, close to 4 they finally diagnosed him with Autism. It doesn't mean that the therapies didn't help, just that the interventions were done so early, and he still needs more. The schools could also help-but I would start demanding help for him now. Mom's know a lot! (I also teach,and have had several students with Autism spectrum disorders, the earlier they get help, the better-and if it's not Autism, and he gets help for the areas of concern-the better off he'll be!)
If you are in Maryland, use child find. It is done through the schools http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/msde/divisions/early... you can call the numbers they are listed by county. Hopkins is good and so is Kennedy Krieger. We have wonderful resource in this area. Krieger sets appt about 9-12 months out, so I would set the appt, call child find and see what happens, then by the time for the Krieger appt rolls around you can take your child there.
Child find is very conservative in their evaluations, so be honest with your self and err on the side of caution regarding the questions.
K.
Are you calling it aspergers just based off snsory issues? Could it be that he just has sensory processing disorder? Have you read the out of sync child or smsational kids? We had our spd evals done by Liz at mt Washington we got the referral through our regular l
ped.
in each state you can call the school board and they should have a center that will come to your house and do test to determine if he infact has that problem. i had my son evaluated at 18 months because he wasnt talking thank god he is fine but those people really helped me maybe they can help you bless you
