Questions re my 3 year old
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| Fri, 12-15-2006 - 11:42pm |
Hi all, I am just here to get some input about my little boy who is 3. For a background---Gavin was speech/communication delayed, did not speak, point, respond consistently to his name at age 2, eye contact fleeting, had some "aloofness" but did interract with us. Played with toys in atypical ways---lining up, throwing them, etc...Obsession with letters/numbers, also some behavior issues, not too bad though.So right after his second birthday we brought him to Children's hospital developmental medicine and at that time, the team dx him with ASD, although they classified it as being "mild". He continued with at home EI---speech therapy, music therapy, ABA/floortime, until he turned 3 in October, now he is attending integrated preschool. Over the course of that year however, he speech and communication exploded---he now is at or well above above age level in areas except fluid conversational speech, for lack of a better term! He needs prompting to carry on a conversation, although he does initiate and asks a lot of what where who why questions, which I was told is positive. He is quite smart, and scored above age level in cognitive skills. He can read simple books by himself and do simple math. Self care needs a bit of work---he is still not quite potty trained, but understands the concept and will use the potty if he is asked to. Can't dress himself, and needs a lot of assistance with eating---he's very picky and sometimes I still have to feed him or else he just won't eat. He does need a lot of social prompting at school, he is interested in the other kids but needs help interacting with them.
The school psychologist does not agree with "autism" with him and thinks if anything he has Asperger's (she considers them different) and she thinks we should have him re evaluated. My nephew who is 10 has Asperger's, and I do see some of his qualities in Gavin, but not all---Gavin is very "hyper" always moving, but can focus when he needs to for school, etc---my nephew is not overly active, and he also has a very flat affect, which Gavin does not have either he has a sense of humor, and a range of emotions. But anyway, my question is what is the difference really in terms of treatment/therapies between autism and aspergers?
Thanks in advance for any info!





Welcome to the board!!!!
As far as school is concerned, they need to address his specific needs, and it is not based on the label he has.
hmmm, interesting conversation we have been having here anyway.
Nope, not much difference diagnostically or treatment wise between autism and aspergers. You really have to go with the individual needs of the child but the treatments for a child with autism who has your sons challenges would be the same as that of a child with aspergers. Visual schedules, social stories, sensory diet, etc.
Actually I posted a link here to a abstract about a scientific study that called to question the diagnosis of aspergers but all of the children with AS that they evaled fit the diagnosis of autism.
The first 2 sections of the Aspergers and Autism criteria are exactly the same. The difference for AS is supposed to be that there is no significant delay in language, cognitive, self help or adaptive behavior. People with AS almost always have difficulty with social langauge and conversations which is on the criteria for autism. They also often have trouble with self help skills and adaptive behavior. And there are often cognitive differences with kids with AS from the typical population. NOt that they are delayed, many have high IQ's but they can still have cognitive challenges that result in problems with executive function, cognitive flexibility, etc which can eventually effect thier learning.
Ok, that was way more than what waas asked, lol.
Renee
hmmm, Gavin sounds like my ds at that age (bar the language delay).