Re: Newly diagnosed 5 1/2 year old - introduction

[Guest guest]

Your daughter sounds a great deal like ours. Our dd is now 7 and recently was

expelled from a wonderful private school in our town for hitting and aggression.

But mostly because they did not know how to manage her. She has been having

problems since the first day in preschool there. She is exceptionally bright and

is bored alot of the time and is so in an interesting way. Whenever she " gets

something " then she's done with it. Couldn't be bothered with it anymore. Which

is a nightmare for teachers. (and parents, too) So, novelty is key for her. And

frankly, I don't think that diagnosis is that important. We've also been

swimming in the big pool of SPD, ADHD, Aspergers, PDD NOS, etc. On top of all

that our dd has another " catch-all " dx of cerebral palsy because of physical

problems stemming from birth trauma. She had to wear braces on her feet for

several years and has an intention tremor in her hands as well. Our kids are

sensitive and need a great deal of attention. It is a hard road and wish you

luck in your journey. We share your pain and are here for you. One thing that

did not help us is that our school had one solution for her behavioral problems.

Punishment. She didn't respond or learn from it and they just kept doing it.

Then they were just done. So communicate with the teachers and administration at

your school and have then look up different behavioral approaches with AS kids.

Primarily focusing on avoidance of problems and sensory integration therapy

(every hour!). If you can.

>

> Hi everyone! I've been part of a sensory processing disorder group for

quite some time, but my almost-6-year-old was diagnosed with Asperger's by a ped

neurologist last week. Figured I'd see what other parents were going through

with their kids like mine.

>

> I've known for years that she was quite different, but my husband has fought

me every step of the way as I've tried to figure out why my daughter struggles

so much in some areas. The last straw for me was her first day of Kindergarten.

I thought that perhaps some of her problems were due to boredom, and that school

would be a great outlet for her. Well, the teacher pulled me aside that first

day at pick up and told me that my daughter was too 'immature' to be in school.

She said I should consider pulling her out and having her try again next year.

Thank God I had a wonderful friend who had been fighting the system to get her

daughter speech therapy who told me to absolutely NOT pull her out. When I told

her that these are the types of things I've been worried about for years and she

hasn't 'matured' out of them yet, she told me that pulling her out would only

lose us a year of precious time that we could be working toward getting her

help. I started calling psychiatrists, pediatricians, anyone I could think of,

to find out WHY she was so immature. This all started in August of last year and

I just one week ago got a diagnosis. Of course mother's intuition along with

endless hours doing online research (since I couldn't find anyone else to see

what I was seeing) resulted in an Asperger's diagnosis BY ME months ago. Too

bad I can't get paid for this!

>

> My sister is a speech pathologist (on the other side of the country) and when

I was telling her my frustrations, and I was convinced my child had ADHD, she

told me to look up sensory processing disorder. She also mentioned that a

pediatrician would probably look at me as if I had two heads if I went in

spewing that 'nonsense', and told me to find an occupational therapist who

specialized in sensory integration therapy for children. The pediatrician I had

at the time had said he knew there was 'something' there but he didn't know what

- so he was happy to give me a referral to the OT just to get me out of his

hair.

>

> The OT did testing (my lovely child really showed her a** too) and gave me the

list of the suspected issues after she had figured up the results. I was greatly

relieved that there was something to what I'd been observing all these years.

Then when she told me that a dx of SPD wouldn't be recognized by the school or

any medical doctor, I was determined to find out WHY she had them. It took lots

of running around, convincing primary care doc to refer, fighting with

insurance, and waiting months for a new patient consultation appointment with a

neurologist over 4 hours away, but FINALLY, here we are. Unfortunately, we're

stuck in the middle of nowhere in the desert (yuck) with virtually no resources

other than our wonderful OT. But I'm doing whatever it takes to help relieve

some of my daughter's struggles before she gets any further in school.

>

> Nice to have a support system. I'm sure I'll have a thousand questions over

the next who knows how long. Thanks in advance to all of you for your experience

and wisdom!

>

> Andie in AZ

>