11 year old daughter possible diagnosis Asperger

[Guest guest]

I'm new here but not the the world of ASD's. I have a 12 year old daughter who

has has Autism and cognitive delays. So I am caught off guard by this new

possiblity for my other daughter. She is very bright and has always had

problems with social skills. Things seem to be comming to a head the older she

gets and more demands are placed on her socially and educationally. She is also

a very gifted athlete and she is starting to have difficulties in this area as

well.

As I look back over the years I can see all the little things adding up and

it makes more sense to me regarding all the difficulties she has been having.

She had delayed language development and received speech therapy from ECI and

later from the school district. She was discharged from speech around

kindergarden. All throughout elementry school she struggled with getting along

with her peers. The counselors pulled her into social skills groups to try to

help her. Since she excelled academically she seemed to fly under the radar (

or at least they never brought up any possibility to me about ASD).

As I mentioned, she is a very gifeted athlete (almost an elete level). That

is how we found our way to an Asperger diagnosis. We started meeting with the

sports psychologist for the team she is with to see about helping her with some

issues in practice with the coaches and teammates. I should also add that about

a year ago she was given an ADHD diagnosis and started on meds for that. We

noticed some improvement in her ability to focus in school and practice but the

other behaviors did not improve. The Pshyc said she did not think it was ADHD

so she did the autism rating scale on her and she scored very high for

asperger's. Since the sports pshyc does not work in the ASD area she is

recommending we get in with someone who does more work in this area.

Until now I never thought anything about her having an ASD. But after

reading about Asperger's everything seems to click. I always considered her to

be strong willed, difficult, highly intelligent, a perfectionist, always takes

things literal, argumenative, and so forth. I am a bit relieved but also very

sad and scared for her future. It breaks my heart to see her struggle socially.

She is a beautiful and loving child and cares about others and how others see

her. I am also angry that it has taken this long to figure out this was more

than just a strong willed child who often acted immature and had difficulty

getting along with her peers at times. She goes to a private school that allows

her to meet the demands of her athletic training schedule. I don't know what

this means for her. I am concerned they will tell us they can not help her and

that we need to take her elsewhere. I'm worried that the coaches will tell us

they can't work with her either. She would be crushed if she had to leave her

school and sport. I know this is a very long post but if anyone has and

suggestions for what to do now I would really appreciate it. What kinds of

therapies and treatments, or professionals has helped most.