"My Son Has the Kind of Autism No One Talks About"

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I am curious to know how many diagnosed kids are actually falsely diagnoses out of what? So that way I would know how common this all is. Sadly this is going to justify peoples opinions about kids not having autism, etc. and just say that kid is just a brat or needs more discipline.

What in the world would a parent of an NT kid want ABA for?

The whole idea is completely insane. Unless I see documented evidence of this happening and the parent doesn't have Munchausens or some other extremely rare psychiatric disorder, I call bs.

Competitive parents want their kids to have a strategic advantage over other kids. ABA does not provide that for NTs. An inclusion classroom with teachers paying a lot of attention to kids with clear special needs is not going to be a place where little Jonny NT is going to get extra attention or extra any thing.

This whole idea is completely mad.

Do these parents also fake spinal cord injuries so they can get their little darlings wheelchairs they don't need? It would make just as much sense.

The parents I have talked to are not looking for ABA therapy. They want speech therapy, or OT for poor hand coordination. The want the teachers to back the hell off, and work with the kid other than labeling him/her a brat. What they want is an IEP that must be followed, than the 504 which the school usually gives lip service.

All the children that I know had issues. They were group under behavioral impairments. So the kid with ADHD, bad transitioning skills, and poor peers relationships gets basically nothing. If he can't keep up writing, too bad, he needs to pay attention.

None of those children would be considered low function. If Aspergers was still a diagnosis, that is where they would be group.

You don't need the gold standard testing for a diagnosis. The one doctor I know of just interviews. My husband could have seen that doctor. He does no testing for adults, but yet still diagnosis ASD.

We chose to find a doctor who did do all the test because we had a lawsuit going. We needed bullet proof testing.

So if you are an upper income family, who wants their kids to go to the best schools later on, why not get the support? ASD isn't considered "horrible" anymore. The kid maybe on the border of a couple diagnosis, the school is being a pain, so why not force the district's hand with the ASD diagnosis? Work the system if you have the influence and the means. (according to them)

No your child will not be in the class with the low functioning ASD kids, he/she will get supports while main streamed. The kids will most likely start losing some supports around 6-8th grade.

Parents will game the system to get what their children need. The school should support all children who need it, but they dont. So, if I can chuck out $3K for an appointment that will make my child's life better, who is anyone to throw the side eye?

I have no dog in this hunt, and my child needs no services, but I can see why a parent would go this route.

In my area, a parent wouldn't even need to try and get their kids an ASD diagnoses unless they absolutely had it or were borderline on it. Why? because we have services available to any kid who needs it and they don't need a label to get help. My son was tested, he showed delays but no diagnoses was given, they only said he was just behind in certain things and gave him services like two teachers from the district that will come to his school to work with him. So I cannot see anyone here wanting their kid to have an autism diagnoses for "free" services if they can get them anyway for their child if they needed it due to any delays like speech or language or gross motor skills, fine motor, writing issues, etc.

I often hear a kid needs a label to get the help they need and how no one can help them without one but I am finding out that isn't always true so it must depend on the school and the area.

Tawaki, what you are talking about is people gunning for an alternative diagnosis (ASD) when the correct one is one that will not get kids' needed services. I think it is ridiculous and unfortunate that this is the case, but I have no issues with that, if that is what they need. (Our district is like this also)

I don't think that is what Bkdad82 is talking about. He seems to be claiming parents of NT kids and "high functioning" ASD kids are somehow misappropriating services that are inappropriate for them and that would be better utilized by "lower functioning kids."

This makes no sense to me at all and also seems to assume as a premise that lower functioning is defined solely by verbal ability, and therefore verbal kids do not need help. This is untrue.

In my school district, at the preK+ level (as that is what I am familiar with and not county-based EI-which we phone-screened out of because my son is "smart" and "snuggly.") ABA as an actual therapy is reserved for non-verbal kids.

"HFA" kids are shoved in mainstream or inclusion(where the odds are the aide will untrained and do the opposite of what a properly trained person will do---and make things worse) deep in the weeds. If you show need, and the teacher helps advocate for your child, you will get pragmatic speech.

They will try to refuse almost any other service until pushed. If your kid is not smart enough to bother to help, they will try not to. If he is "smart," they will say you don't need help. This way then can insult everyone and provide next to nothing.

You will get no social help until your kid is driven to becoming a behavioral problem, then they will blame you and offer parental counseling, blaming you and your child, so they can lay the groundwork to kick your kid out or shove him into an alt school, or make your kids' life so horrific that you are forced to withdraw him and provide for his education on your own.

If your kid is not a behavioral problem, he will get zero attention, and will left to fend completely on his own. You will know nothing about bullies or other issues, unless your child has the communication skills to tell you, or a Good Samaritan tells you on the down-low.

That said, Tawaki is right about your kid having a better chance of making it through than if he gets a diagnosis of ADD b/c then they tell you to medicate and give you no help. ODD gets you a trip to alt school and a nice introduction to the school to prison pipeline.

Aside from avoiding that immediate response, I see no advantage to getting an ASD diagnosis unless you know, you are ASD.

False diagnosis is not confined to higher-functioning kids, most cases I have heard about are parents of lower-functioning kids who have another disability like blindness or ID getting diagnosed also with autism with the cooperation of the doctor (there is no need to fake anything during assessment if the doctor cooperates to give you the diagnosis you want) specifically to get services that have designated to autistic kids in their geographic area.

The problem isn't the kids or parents, it's that the schools have learned that the way to get more money into their programs is to draw things out until parents are exhausted, their resources to fight are exhausted, or the kid ages out of the system. I just spoke to a woman whose son is a nonverbal dult with Downs - he barely got the recommended speech minutes. Downs is a fairly protected diagnosis, since it comes with a specific marker and very clear symptomology...if they're service-starving nonverbal kids with Downs, it's a much bigger problem than the possiblity that "siphoning" is happening.

So we are back to the issue of whether people with language are really autistic or just leaching services from those who really need them. Hasn't this been gone over enough yet?

Yes, in California some children in need of services for ASD might have been diagnosed with autism who might better have fit Aspergers criteria in order to help them get the services their doctor and family felt they needed. I'm not crying over that, and the outcome data for people with Aspergers aren't good enough for anyone to convince me those kids didn't need the services.