daughter dxd

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finally got the official report last night on daughter....her official dx is ADHD~predominantly hyperactive/impulsive type. the report also says that she displays some behavior consistent with Aspergers., but "does not meet criteria when her behavior across all reports and observations is considered."

i feel numb. i don't really agree with the dx...i don't know how she didn't get an aspie dx....

I have heard parents report this same dx recently on other forums so I suspect what's going on is we're seeing a new trend in diagnosis reflecting the recognition that there's a group of kids with ADHD that bump up against the spectrum. But those other parents usually agreed with the diagnosis that their child was borderline which doesn't sound like your situation. I've heard a lot of parents with a kid who "does not meet criteria when her behavior across all reports and observations is considered" still come away with an AS dx since it's the closest fit.

What was the specialty area of the diagnostician?

Girls are generally under-diagnosed; I was never diagnosed as a kid even though I was brought to psychiatrists and displayed plenty of diagnostic criteria. It just seems that the same traits in girls are seen differently than when they are exhibited by boys. You need to trust your instinct, don't worry about the label.

This is going to be tough now - I wonder how much input stupid teacher had in the final dx? I know docs considered input from all areas and that teacher seems pretty convinced your daughter is just doing this to be difficult.

There's a book, The ADHD-Autism Connection, that really made some good points. I know it's not officially recognized by the DSM or doctors, but it still made me wonder. The biggest thing with my boy is the hyperactivity/impulsive behaviors. Those have gone way down now that he's out of a noisy classroom.

Good luck, if nothing else, hopefully she'll have a better teacher next year?

Hi

I have 2 sons - 1 dx'd with ADHD and one dx'd with autism. I do find it uncanny the similarities between the disorders.

What I find frustrating is that if we have behavior issues with our Autistic son it is tolerated and people are more understanding and accepting. If we have behavior issues with our ADHD son it is not tolerated and he is seen as a bad kid or the product of bad parenting. The supports for ADHD are just not there.

The more time that goes by the more I start to question if my son is ADHD or AS. He has some quirky behaviors and interests that have always been passed off as part of his ADHD. The doctors talked about one component of ADHD called "hyperfocus" - which to me seems a lot like the "preoccupying, narrow interests of a person with Asperger's syndrome."

Is it possible for you to seek a 2nd opinion? If you ask your local Autism organization, they can usually let you know of doctors that specialize in borderline cases.

Good Luck

There's one thing that I observed in several of my ADHD students and I've since wondered if it's not one of the subtle differences. It seemed to me that those kids who had the ADHD managed successfully through medications were then free to pick up on things like social skills naturally. The ability to "get it" was there--it's just the ADHD was standing in the way of letting those skills develop.

thanks for your replies...i'm still having such a hard time with this. the dr writes that the majority of her social deficits and excesses can be accounted for by ADHD( talking excessively & not listening to others, talking on subjects primarily of interest to her, not interpreting more subtle verbal and non-verbal cues from others). i just don't get it...all of those traits sure sound like aspergers to me.......maybe i just need time to process this. i just don't agree with the dr~and his specialty is autism, BTW.

Ster, can you go to a different dr for another opinion?

Also, can you challenge this dr over his diagnosis and ask for a clearer explanation?

What is your daughter's physicality like? Does she have awkward posture/ body language? Is she uncoordinated? Does she stim/ rock/ hand flap/ etc?

The reason I ask is because I have one daughter who is very intense, smart, difficult, but I know she would never be dx'ed with AS because she is very graceful physically and coordinated, and doesn't stim. Yet she has many ADHD traits. I wonder if females are less likely to show as severe physical manifestations of AS?

I agree it would be good to talk to the doctor for clarification.

I'm on another forum that sees a lot of younger children come through going through first time evaluations. Often what we suggest to the parents there is to consider that first one to be a "working diagnosis" as long as you feel that its in the neighborhood and it's accurate enough to get any services/support in place that the child needs. It's understandable to want the dx to match exactly with what you thought going in but in reality that doesn't happen very often with young children. It doesn't seem to make a lot of difference in the area of something like school services at the beginning. A lot of times the dx is adjusted when they get a little older or when they're evaluated by someone else who sees the child with a little different perspective.

this is my second child going through the eval process....my oldest got a psych eval, and then a year later, we had a neuropsych done because we felt that son's dx was incorrect ( it was), & that he just wasn't receiving the services he really needed...son is pretty much set now~he's doing much better in the smaller school~and though he has his days, we understand his aspieness so much better...one month after son got dx'd, hubby was dx'd......i am unfortunately not new to the whole dx process.it is exhausting & frustrating to feel that you are doing your best to describe all of the symptoms and idiosyncracies~ and then end up feeling like you haven't been heard. I know that statistically speaking, lots of aspies get an ADHD dx first.Now that i've had time to review the report more thoroughly, i can see that the reccomendations the dr made will definitely help my daughter...that is, if the school agrees to try them. i have set up a meeting with the eval dr for next week to go through the report more thoroughly.....hopefully he can explain to me in more comprehensible language about the aspie & ADHD symptoms that he feels overlap.the dr reccomended re-eval in one years time...can't afford to pay out of pocket again...am up to around $7000 paid out between all the evals that have taken place in my house.
on to news about the fidiot teacher.....had the meeting with her & the principal yesterday~before i could even get any words out, the teacher apologized for the progress report, and said that it was very insensitive of her to send out a report like that to a family who's already well aware of all the struggles their child is going through..that she should've included positive comments about daughter's strengths. She also said that she was aware that the chip system was not really working for daughter, and that she had been making accomodations for daughter...she wanted to wait to make any changes until the dr reccomendations came in ..... all in all, the meeting went very well. the prinicipal, teacher and i shared many of the same concerns about daughters problems, and uneven profile ( some days math is ok/some days math is HORRIBLE).
we've agreed to meet again so that we can plan for daughter..not sure whether it will be a 504 or an IEP, but regardless it seems like the principal is more than willing to carry out the dr's reccomendations.
onward and upward.

Good for the principal - apparently the teacher has been shown the light.