different diagnosis/different perspective

[hsmum]

Hello,

 

My son has a best friend at school. His friend, in my opinion, has classic symptoms of autism: profuse hand wringing, rigid and repetitive behaviour, social impairment (my son is his only friend and the friendship consists of the other boy treating my son like a pet) and impairment of communication ( for example exchanges of silly words and noises instead of conversation). The problem is that my son has a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome and this diagnosis has led to real benefits. For example, he has a support worker assigned to him who has real expertise in ASD and can help my son make sense of class work and relationships and who is actively builiding up his self esteem. My son's behaviour is also often interpreted as being triggered by his particular impairments. My son's friend, however, has a diagnosis of Global Learning Difficulties and as such does not recieve the more specialised treatment that my son receives. I know people can have ASD and GLD, but I am shocked that staff at the school have not questioned the differences in diagnosis when the boys are so similar.

I may get the opportunity to see my son's freind's mother over the Easter period. What should I advise her to do to get another diagnosis? She said the specialist said her boy could not have an ASD because he made too much eye contact. The eye contact her son makes is profuse, but never held for long.

 

Thanks

[Donna K]

I wonder how well up on ASD the specialist is...

 

A lot of children with ASD can have very good eye contact, as it is a spectrum and they're all different. Given the lack of eye contact is a good indicator but ASD can't be ruled out just because he appeared to have good eye contact?

 

My son generally has poor eye contact, but there are times he will look right at you and almost stare into your eyes, this could be deemed as good eye contact, usually though he will look at you for a split secon then put his eyes down and to the right and keeps looking there while he's trying to tell us something.

 

It can be a sensitive subject so approach it carefully to the mother, although you're doing it for the right reasons, for her son to get more help that it sounds like he needs! She can take it up with the paed and see if they can refer or at least request the ADOS or something just to make sure? School are probably just satisfied with the GLD as it affects their funding to help more, even though they get funding to provide staff, they (AFAIK) have to put something towards it too ( this may depend on ther area) so they can be reluctant to have another DX that may mean they having to do more?

[Karen A]

Hello,

 

My son has a best friend at school. His friend, in my opinion, has classic symptoms of autism: profuse hand wringing, rigid and repetitive behaviour, social impairment (my son is his only friend and the friendship consists of the other boy treating my son like a pet) and impairment of communication ( for example exchanges of silly words and noises instead of conversation). The problem is that my son has a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome and this diagnosis has led to real benefits. For example, he has a support worker assigned to him who has real expertise in ASD and can help my son make sense of class work and relationships and who is actively builiding up his self esteem. My son's behaviour is also often interpreted as being triggered by his particular impairments. My son's friend, however, has a diagnosis of Global Learning Difficulties and as such does not recieve the more specialised treatment that my son receives. I know people can have ASD and GLD, but I am shocked that staff at the school have not questioned the differences in diagnosis when the boys are so similar.

I may get the opportunity to see my son's freind's mother over the Easter period. What should I advise her to do to get another diagnosis? She said the specialist said her boy could not have an ASD because he made too much eye contact. The eye contact her son makes is profuse, but never held for long.

 

Thanks

 

Hi.As Donna has already said the ability to make eye contact alone is not a very good way to rule out ASD.

Ben can also make eye contact although some people would probably describe it as unusual eye contact..it feels a bit like being stared at.Karen.

 

[Donna K]

A makes stary eye contact too, like he looks through you, A is quite verbal too which can be a red herring, just because he can speak doesn't mean he understands what he says or what is said to him, he often replies to questions with something completely bizarre LOL or answers in the wrong way, eg, when I asked him which drink he wanted, he pointed and said "I want a piece of that"

[hamish]

Hi,

 

This is interesting as I am convinced my son (dx ADHD) has an ASD but all the professionals I have seen rule it out on the basis that he makes eye contact. My gut instinct tells me they are wrong but try telling them that! It's v frustrating as I am convinced I am better read on the subject of ASD than any of the doctors that we see.

 

Sx

[Donna K]

Keep pushing the professionals, don't let it drop, it took me over 6 years to get A dx with autism!! Keep on at them and ask for assessments etc, if the assessments show no ASD at least you have had them done and perhaps some peace of mind, he may well be somewhere on the spectrum and they cannot go off eye contact alone to rule it out!

 

I think us parents become more expert than the experts, after all, we LIVE with it!

 

If you feel there's more to it then don't give up until you have exhausted all avenues and satisfied with the answers.

[Aaryk Noctivagus]

She said the specialist said her boy could not have an ASD because he made too much eye contact. The eye contact her son makes is profuse, but never held for long.

 

I'm going to be blunt. If the Specialist said that about eye contact then the Specialist needs re-education (I was going to be blunter than that, but got tickled by the polite stick suddenly - lol). Whilst it is usual for Autistics to give poor eye contact it is NOT universal. My daughter and I give fleeting eye contact, but my son (who is also Autistic) gives much better eye contact and is not avoidant to a degree that it would separate his eye-contact particularly from that of an Neurologically Typical child.

 

Autism should never be discounted on eye-contact abilities alone.