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I am writing about my 14yo dd. When she was small she presented with many intense sensory issues, strange language development and many fears. Difficult child! Flash forward and she is a high functioning kid. Real friends, decent at school, high test scores, appears quirky but typical. I know she has some issues that she hasn't totally compensated for (as she has with her sensory stuff and fears)--like processing, which is slowish for her, obsessions! and probably some feelings of alienaton etc. If times had been different I would have gotten OT etc for her when she was little. But what could/should I do for her now in terms of testing or treatment? I know how to attack syptoms if they seem to be really destructive, but it is fairly subtle with her. Is it worth taking her to a neuropsychologist? Or would anyone rec anything else. She definitely has issues in expressing emotion and empathy as well...FWIW, her younger half brother has ASD and I believe I am an Aspie who is obvious to the few, though I was virtually disabled at her age....

Send her our way. I think aspies are the best specialists for diagnosing and assisting other aspies, especially when we work in a virtual group.

my son wasn't dx'd until 13...middle school proved to be quite difficult....the dx has made a tremendous difference for our son~ getting the right meds to address the right issues, and just having school staff look at him as Aspergers and not Oppositional has made such a difference. pre-dx, staff at his school treated him (and us) as if he was a spoiled, rotten brat who just needed some discipline...........sounds like you don't have these issues, but dx could still help in the long run...it's never too late to receive services...of course, docs will decide what services she'd need
i had a student with very limited verbal skills who didn't start school until he was 14 ! i guess you'd think all was lost for him, but that couldn't be farther from the truth...he has come a long way since starting at our school.

I am afraid that for her high school will be where she finds her skills can't keep up. Where would you go for an eval--I mean to a neuropsych or a psych or what....I want everything in place for when she needs more support (and meds).

I just stumbled across a great book and website.
The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome: Completely Revised and Updated: Advice, Support, Insight, and Inspiration by Patricia Romanowski Bashe, Barbara L. Kirby, Simon Baron-Cohen, and Tony Attwood, Crown; Rev&Updtd edition (March 29, 2005)
http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/

Brief additional information here http://www.wrongplanet.net/asperger.htm ... 913#259913

a decent psych can give you good information and a dx.....that is if they're decent...we were told by every professional (except the gentleman who did the neuropsych), that our son was an enigma. he didn't quite fit any of the categories they wanted to put him in~and boy did they have ALOT of dx's they wanted to push on him.........(ODD<ADD<ADHD< BPD<MPD)............try turning to your local and/or state autism society for information on reputable docs in your area.

Probably a good psych or neuropsych is the answer. I don't want to look back and think it would have been useful for her to have a dx at this age. Last year, OASIS turned me onto a group here who does AS services/counseling/groups, and they thought she fit AS, but they had a MSW doing intake, so I was really disappointed because I thought her opinion was really no better than mine. And what they offered her was social skills groups, which is really the area where she fakes it the best. One on one and in small groups her quirkiness is more obvious, but I think her friends accept her as she is. It's more in the areas of intimacy, obsessiveness, alienation, anxiety....You know!

I have had the same story as your son in terms of every dx under the sun over the past 20 years or so. I find it humorous that I'm now on Risperdal, which I believe is the drug given most often to people on the spectrum.

Thank you for the ideas