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Originally Posted by duckman
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This past weekend my ex-wife told me that Matthew may have Asperger's Syndrome...  |
We went through an initial diagnosis of Asperger's with our first child. However, we felt the indication that he had this syndrome was inaccurate because their were too many personality traits that contradicted this diagnosis. In our case, our child wasn't very social in class, didn't stay focused on his work, wasn't real good on picking up on social queues, wasn't very emotional, and seemed to hyperfocus on a single topic (at that point it was the human body).What we noticed from home was: he was plenty social with other kids in a one on one situation, he related better to older kids, he was extremely loving and caring to both my wife, his siblings and me, and his hyperfocus would change to a new topic once his grasp of the previous one was reached to his satisfaction. We realized he did have issues, but we just felt the Asperger's lable was wrong and could eventually lead to inappropriate treatments.
We've since had him tested twice and both diagonis support what I felt was the problem all along, he's actually ADHD (actually EXTREMELY ADHD - to the point the psychiatrist put in his record "he's hyper for the hyperactive children I test on regular basis") and he's also extremely bright. She went on to explain that the hyperactivity cause him to be distracted easly, especially in large groups (like a classroom), and he's so bright that he isn't interested in the work that it put in front of him on a daily bases - so his mind wanders, plus he's more mentally on a level with kids that are older, thus he relates better to them.
The psychologist also suggested (and this is why I'm telling you all this) that Asperger's diagnosis has really become flavor of the week and that it has often become a catch all for kids with issues like I described above, but that often those symptoms can be applied to numerous other causes. She went on to comment that true Asperger's is very rare, and that she's seen numerous children that were tagged Asperger's that didn't have the syndrome, but that if a child has problems, typically there are enough sympotoms, especially in little boys that if a doctors wants to make an Asperger's diagnosis he can. A lady in our school system here, that deals with special needs children said virtually the same thing to my wife after Brett (my oldest) showed significant improvement relating to peers this year in school.
You're taking your son to a specialist, but I'd still keep an eye out for things that contadict Asperger's Syndrome - just to make sure that the actions you're taking to help your son, are the right ones. Regardless of the outcome, your family is in my prayers and I'm available if you'd like to discuss anything, I know what you're going through, I've been dealing with the issues you're addressing now for over 18 months.