There isn't any harm in getting a diagnosis in itself, but keep in mind that once you have disclosed a diagnosis to someone (or some organization), it can't be taken back.
To be perfectly honest, I'm glad that I wasn't diagnosed as a kid. A lot of people talk about how so much more fortunate they would have been, but you need to put it in a historical context.
Back in my day, "help for a disability" involved:
a) being treated like an invalid and being segregated into adolescent daycares after elementary school without any hope of attending post-secondary or finding a job that pays more than $3/hour.
b) them pretending that you didn't have a disability at all, but you would still get an educational assistant following you around if you were violent.
If my parents and the school "knew" back then, I really don't know what would have happened. Probably not the first scenario, but I really don't know how an educational assistant would have helped me. My boyfriend had one for behavioural problems, and he said that it was complete hell. The other children would play nice during the classroom, but taunt him off school property.
I didn't have any learning problems, no attention problems, no serious behavioural problems. So in reality, a classroom assistant only would have harmed me in the long run.
Back in many of the older people's days, "help for a disability" meant being sent to an institution until being released onto the streets in the 1980s.
However, it seems like your son might have significantly more problems than I did. Try mainstream schooling for a while, and see if he needs any assistance.
24 Nov 2009, 9:18 pm
