I don't believe that my son has autism...

[adrianna1]

He has been diagnosed with autism....but I really do not think he has it. When they were assessing my DS they said he was a very complicate case, but he had just about enough of the criteria to be diagnosed with autism....

I generally believe that my son has a language delay and ADD...

I am not in denial. But none would believe me anyway and they cannot take away the ASD diagnosis and I am positive that it is not ASD.

Well...if I tell people this they would think that I'm in denial. So I'm not going to mention this to any profession.

I meant to say in some young children diagnosis can be much harder than others.

i would concentrate on what help your ds needs rather than argue over the dx for now....my son was diagnosed with AS at 7, but as he got older he also "collected" other DX along with AS.....dyslexia and dyspraxia. Ithink the label helps in terms of explaining certain behaviours and can help accessing help - but more important to ensure that your son is getting the therapy he needs.
its also worth noting that all "coding" disorders overlap, and often ADD goes hand in hand with other diagnosis.

my friends son has PDDNOS, (pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified) along with dyspraxia and ADD. He also has lots of AS traits....

Ds started with GD and lang difficulties, then pddnos. They decided on dxing him with HFA at 4. Like magso it is becoming more obvious with time, now his 8 it is v clear - HFA but still lang issues, and I think will continue like this. But I think think asd overrides Lang issues and approach you take to teaching it.

With early intervention, dx not so important as it works on an inclusive team. I had a friend he did not want his son dx as would mean he would not go to a salt school. Eventually he got a statement in mainstream, which has worked out ok. But ask them to delay the dx if you feel if would help with lang.

Hi everyone

Yes I agree, time will tell when it would become clear. In the meantime, I'll just do my best to help my son. :)

I did challenge a Consultant Psychiatrist's diagnosis. I asked for a referral to a different Cons Psych who specialised in ASD, for a 2nd opinion. You have a legal right to a 2nd opinion.

A diagnosis is really only the opinion of a doctor. That doctor may not be correct in his opinion - ours wasn't. A different doctor may arrive at a different conclusion and issue a different diagnosis.

A diagnosis can be overturned if a different diagnosis is made. In our case we have a report stating that a misdiagnosis was originally made as DS presented with none of the diagnostic criteria that would have had to have been present before the original (mis)diagnosis could have been made, and that the current diagnosis that has now been agreed by 3 competent practitioners is ASD.

You could also ring the doctor who issued the diagnosis that you disagree with and ask them to tell you why they have opted for ASD rather than ADD. They should then tell you how they see he meets the Triad of Impairments that must be present in order to dx ASD.

But if you are not happy with the diagnosis you should exercise your right for a 2nd opinion. Your GP sould be able to seek a 2nd opinion for you.

I agree with everyone that the wide range of differences we see in children with ASD does just represent a differing population.

However - there are also many similarities we see - in varying degrees - between our children too.

So I'm wondering if it's the Drs seeing the similarities and your seeing the differences?

You do have the right to a second opinion though. But the support your DS gets should be based on his needs not his DX. My DS doesn't have a dx yet but gets ASD type support at school because that's what he needs - and what he's being assessed for.

@wetaugust and youarewinning...

Thanks for your replies. Depending how my son develops, I'll get a second opinion when my DS is older....

Plus guess what. The doctor, who diagnosed my son with ASD said she wants to see him in 8 weeks.... I really don't know why... they already diagnosed him.

@wetaugust...what was your son misdiagnosed with? and what is his new diagnosis?

Its very hard as my son has a very severe language delay...but at least he is motivated to communicate.

@zzzzz- I don't really know, but I'm just going by what the doctor said when she was assessing my son...

things like joint attention, using gestures to compensate lack of verbal words, sharing interests, pointing, use of non verbal communication, interaction.. indicates that a child wants to communicate. So I guess it is apart of the criteria as it falls under social communication.

But again, I don't know, I'm just going by what the doctor said. Even though my son has all these skills, it is still delayed and this is why he got his diagnosis.

But she did say as because my son has these skills, he is more likely to become sociable, eventually talk etc.

things like joint attention, using gestures to compensate lack of verbal words, sharing interests, pointing, use of nomverbal communcation...

my Dd wants to communicate. and by 4/5 she was consistently pointing, had joint attention etc. but these skills were delayed. by 4 her lack.of speech and language was the most obvious difficulty. even our paed did not believe she would score in the Ados (she did, very high in fact).

now, at 6 her speech and language is still a massive issue but her Asd is so much more obvious.

But wanting to and being able to are different things.

yes, totally agree. Dd wants to communicate. It is not the wanting but the not being abke to which is the problem. she has severe asd though.

What's the difference between wanting and able to communicate?

@Frusso, I'm not ruling out ASD units, but the ones I have looked into so far, does not concentrate fully on speech and language. But will be still looking around.

Even though my son has been diagnosed with ASD. I'm not looking into the fact that because he has ASD and a severe language delay, I should therefore put him into an ASD unit or speech unit.

I'm looking at his needs and see which unit is beneficial for him.

@Chocgalore

What made them diagnosed your DD with severe autism?

As regards the difference between wanting to and being able to communicate, DS who has AS wants to communicate and make friends. He is very communicative with adults but is not as able with his peers as his impaired ability to keep up with banter and all the typical social interactions gets in the way. So as time has gone by he decides to opt out , not because he doesn't want to communicate but because he isn't that good at it in some situations.

DS was diagnosed as ADD originally but AS was added a number of years later. He was also regarded as a complex case . I wondered about ASD from an early age but he always seemed so sociable , able to read expressions, shared interests etc and his ASD traits were not as noticeable. However now at 12 , he is more obviously quirky than he was when younger. Even though he has always had attention issues I always think they are more related to his ASD than to ADD, things like sensory and auditory processing issues

I think maybe the question you should ask the pead when you go back for your own peace of mind is - with the language skills my DS has - does he communicate effectively with them?

ASD is more the social communication - some children with ASD will have delayed/disordered speech/ language and some won't. But it's how they can use these skills and the effectiveness of their use iyswim?

@Teawaster- Thanks for your explanation, I understand now.

@Youarewinning, I ask my pead the exact same question- she said he does communicate effectively- he has limited language- though uses gestures..but is delayed hence why he got his diagnosis...

What does iyswim stand for? I've always wondered that.

If you see what I mean!

Hi Adrianna. Don’t know if you still see messages posted on here, my son is about two and a half almost 3.

Does your son have autism after all?

I don’t think my son does either but I don’t know what to think :(

thank you!

Hi! Nice to see my old thread (good times...). Anyway, I'm the original poster. I just lost my original login details.

Yes! He has ASD. To be honest, the more skills he developed in (e.g. more language, attention) the more obvious his ASD has become. His social communication skills are a strength (which I did speculate at the time and is still considered the case) but it is definitely disordered. He was assessed twice and the assessors said ASD again at the cut off point.

I am on the same boat. Mines been diagnosed since 2, he’s 3 now and I just don’t think it’s it. Something else. Not in denial. I’ll gladly accept my kid however he may be if he really has autism bring the rest of that very special journey right at me. My son is also mute still. Doesn’t respond to his name ever but he can hear 100%%% no stemming besides babble which they keep telling me almost all his babble is stemming. I have immense trouble gettting him to sit still and look at what I’m trying to show him long enough to then show him to engage the object. He started biting few months ago. I’m assuming in frustration when he really needs or wants to say something but can’t so he resorts to biting. I’ve known something was different with my son since he has been 6 months. But he acts like a child that doesn’t have any special needs whatsoever. Yet he’s been “placed to be very high on the spectrum” I’d say if anything maybe he acts like a 2 year old and not a 3 year old esp when it comes to Mile stones. Good luck to you keep looking into it! I will!