trying to get the diagnosis ball rolling tomorrow

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I do not believe he thinks Aspegers exists by the way he joked about it everytime I brought it up. I wrote an 18 page list of memories from my my childhood, school years, and my working years he did not even look at them. They were on a small note book pages which did not have a lot of material on each page. When I asked for these notes back when I left he asked if he could xerox them I said no. I figured he did not read them in the first place he was not going to read the xeroxes after I leave.



He told me how he is writing some book on anger management and he thought it was more important for me to learn to cope and adapt. I told him that the first day and he said with a smile that he will give me the tools to handle my social anxiety.



I told him that and he believes I would be better off handling the situation with the skills we were going to develope together.



I dropped him today, I spent a lot of energy to keep from insulting him. When I told him I am going to have to stop seeing him for a little while he then perked up saying that if I gave him a little more time he could tell me if I have Aspergers or not. ie...waste more of my time and limited amount money. he was not into discussing anything Aspergers related until I said was taking a break from him. He also told me it was going to cost me a lot of money to get a diagnosis from someone else.

Last edited by Todesking on 25 Jun 2010, 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I just set an apoitment for DeGraff memorial hospital on August 6th. They said they will give me a test that will take 4-5 hours. It sounded like an IQ test from what they described.

I'm glad you're getting another opinion Todesking. It sounds like the previous guy had one trick, anger managment, and was trying to use it for every situation. I'm sure that'll help him with his book sales, if he can prove all problems get back to the thing he's selling a "cure" for. He sounds like a real snake oil salesman.

I think it's going to stay that way until neuroscience is able to come up with better diagnostic techniques. There is way too much guess work going on in psychology!

It will probably INCLUDE an IQ test, most likely the WAIS-IV. This test (which includes various subtests that measure verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, processing speed and working memory) itself shouldn't take anymore than 90 minutes to complete.

An IQ test itself cannot determine much of anything insofar as whether you meet the Dx criteria for Asperger's or not. People with AS often display similar patterns on IQ tests like WAIS-IV though. Also, an AS Dx isn't usually given if the Full-Scale IQ score is below average (which would be 85 or less on the WAIS-IV.) I think you said you've taken other IQ tests and your scores were pretty high, so that shouldn't be an issue for you. You will probably have several other neuropsychological and personality tests as well. The most frequently used personality test is called the MMPI. It's a paper/pencil test and it shouldn't take anymore than an hour for you to complete.


So those two tests shouldn't take much longer than 2-1/2 hours to complete. Those are the two psychometric tests that i'm almost certain you'll receive. You will likely receive others which will take up much of the remaining time, but I can't be sure what the other tests will be. Probably other neuropsych tests which measure motor skills, attention-concentration, executive functioning, memory, etc. Specifically...these may include the Trail- making tests, Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological battery, Complex Figure test, etc.....

It really all depends on what tests the particular clinicians you'll be seeing use. As far how they will determine (beyond self-report) whether or not you meet the Dx criteria for AS, i'm really not sure about that either. They may use the ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) and/or other tests.


At any rate....this sounds pretty positive right? There should be no reason why they won't be able to give you an official AS Dx provided it's warranted ofcourse. How did you find out about this place? Did they give you any idea about how much all this will cost? I know you said you wanted to get a formal Dx soon, is this soon enough for you? BTW....they probably won't be able tell you much of anything about your results that very day, including whether you meet the Dx criteria for AS or not. You might have to wait a week or so (probably not much longer) for your results. Are you going to look elsewhere for testing/Dx in the meantime or are you OK with what they're offering you on August 6th?

x2

This guy seems either grossly incompetent or equally unscrupulous. Perhaps some configuration of both, but i'm thinking far more unscrupulous than incompetent. He probably missed his calling in life. Me thinks he would've made an excellent fortune teller, televangelist, politician, or used carsalesman

I will not be able to apply for a grant for school until after Aug. 16 so I am going to try to switch to winter classes so I can get the full grant amount. But an August 6 test date is good enough. They will be mailing me paper work to fill out and an explination on what they will be doing. So I'll let you know when that comes in.

What kind of grant are you referring to?


Does it depend on a formal AS/ASD diagnosis or something?


The paperwork they're sending probably just involves questions about any medical conditions/procedures you've had and things like that. I guess they'll list the tests they'll be adminstering too. Anyway...it all sounds pretty good to me and I guess it's affordable for you too. I'm still waiting for a copy of the neuropsych eval I had last Thurs. He was supposed to fax it to me when it was available and he told me it would be by yesterday afternoon. It's not big deal really...I pretty much know all my results anyway. If they don't fax it to me by Monday, i'll just drive over there and pick it up. After I have the report, i'll post all that is relevant in terms of the results, his comments/recommendations and my own thoughts.

Its a grant put out by Buffalo Employment Training Center its for people who have been laid off but would like to be re-trained to help find gainful employment. But there are other grants floating around in the Buffalo area that apply to the disabled.