Nikkle wrote:
Hi my name is Nikki , I have a 19 year old son, Trevor who was 3 going on 40, a junior egghead who walked out of Jurassic Park at age 5 because he couldn't stand the unrealistic hip placements on the dinosaurs. We didn't know about Asperger's and never even thought to have him tested because we were so concerned about his little brother, Bobby(now 16) who had blatantly obvious flags of autism. Delayed speech, batting his ears and spinning in circles on the soccer field, screaming to drown out other noise, lack of eye contact, glued focus, improper peer interaction etc..He was tested by a university in Oregon twice, once in 1998 and then 2003. They said he had "flags" of autism, but did not qualify. Said he had depression, detachment, ADD and oppositional defiance. Wanted me to put him on Strattera, which I refused. He was also tested several times by the school district at the insistence of his teachers who were certain there was more to this. One year they said he didn't meet the requirements for any services, but received more than ever the next. Finally, at the end of 8th grade the school district said he had Central Auditory Processing Disorder. They seemed to have ignored the observational report of one of the school districts most respected autism advocates. Why? So they gave him an IEP, put him in a skills building class for which he gets a B while all his other classes are D's and F's. Basically, it's just a study hall. He also receives speech therapy. He is very sad much of the time, wishing he knew how to interact with others and why they think he is weird whenever he just tries to be himself . I know his pain all too well as there was no such thing as Asperger's when I was a kid, just social rejects doing the best they could not to draw ridicule attention to themselves because they didn't "get it" I believe the people who tested my boy came to their conclusion by using the archaic text book standard criteria, they had to be behind on their knowledge of the wider variety of symptoms, because every parent of an AS that has met my son, every teacher or aide that works with special needs kids that has met my son has thought he was and asked me if he was an Aspie. I am taking their advice and trying to contact the autism advocate who observed my son first hand to see if she can help or point me in the right direction. In the meantime, is there anyone on here from my area that might know where I could take my son before he turns 18 and leaves home, to get the appropriate treatment? We are in Southern Oregon. Thanks
The problem is that you are in southern oregon...the economy in southern oregon is very tight so of course doctors will be far more likely to misdiagnose an autistic child in order to "justify" prescribing drugs that get them kickbacks from drug companies... sad but true... your child can be a textbook case of classical autism and in southern oregon you are more likely to get misdiagnosis than legit diagnosis, most likely because of drug company incentives (as there is no "drug" approved for treating autism specifically)... Good news though, as of 2016, your autistic kids CAN get OMMP for "pervasive neurological condition" if you find a good doctor for diagnosis and such... I might recommend Dr. John Green from "evergreen center" in oregon city (up by portland) or a number of other doctors in the portland area who specialize in diagnosis/treatment for autism...
Dr. Veronica Vasquez (specializes in children) is who has done my current diagnosis and got me setup with DD Services (practically useless agency if you ask me)... Unfortunately, with the troubles you're having getting proper diagnosis for your kids, you might want to hang around portland a bit and rub shoulders with some specialists.
28 Jan 2011, 4:14 pm
