Do you think N needs a more thorough evaluation?

[totoro]

I have posted in the past about N, she is 4 now and has been diagnosis'd with sensory processing disorder (SPD). We had the School do a child find with her and they found nothing... of course. They said she was above average in some things. husband took her to all of her tests. This was even before her glasses, so I was amazed that they found nothing, since she could barely see and was walking and stumbling into things.

Anyway, husband and I feel that she is suffering possibly from stress due to K's violence and Mania...

But N seems like she is on the Spectrum, or something is going on. SRL and others have said in the past that she sounds like there are some red flags...
Every single person has said she is fine or it is just stress from K. Or we are over reacting, kind of like we are looking for something wrong, (just like with K). All of her issues have gotten worse or she has gotten new symptoms.

Here is a list of her symptoms:

Spins
hums, makes nonsense noises
self stims, ALOT
licks things, soap, toys, deoderant, walls, the dog, seat belt etc
smells thing, (obsessed with smelling inside ALL dog's ears)
Noises freak her out, ran out into the street the other day when school bell rang
tongue thrusts when excited
jumps up and down when excited, like a hand flap
shuts down in a crowd, will lose posture, climb up me, lose speech, spin, hang on me, hide, cling to me, act like she is terrified
constantly needs to hang or climb on me or husband
is starting to not be able to focus or shut out things to hear us (like she can't hear us)
When overwhelmed she will stop talking and act like she can't talk, regress to baby talk
is starting to repeat TV
Is obsessed with dogs, will just lie on Clemey humming to her.


But she still makes eye contact
still can speak well, complete sentences when not stressed
is still learning new things
I could not get her into a Dev. pediatrician here but found one in Tucson, when we get to Tucson I might give them a call and see if they are taking patients.

What do you guys think? I just don't see how this new School will not see anything. Could all of these just be from dealing with K???

 

[BusynMember]

She sounds like a typical spectrum kid. I"d take her to a neuropsychologist. Until my son was older, we kept getting told he had "ADHD" and then "bipolar" even though we kept questioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Go with your gut. Spinning, weird noises, etc. are all part of the spectrum. You'd think it would be obvious to professionals, but they are so clueless about higher functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). If you already seen a neuropsychologist, I'd see another one for a second opinion. Good luck.

 

[crazymama30]

I don't know a lot about Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), but I see a lot of red flags.

The poor thing licks soap???? I feel for her. I would try to get into the dev pediatrician in Tuscon. Wow.

I don't have much faith in school evaluations either, they might be good if done in conjunction with a private evaluation.

 

[totoro]

She has not had a Nuero-psychiatric evaluation yet. We were just trying to get her into a Dev. pediatrician First. I don't know why, But I thought with her only being 3 that would be a better route first. Now that she is 4 and getting wore I am going to push for the Dev. pediatrician and then in conjunction try to find a Neuro-psychiatric in Tucson.
I have read a lot on Bipolar Disorder and the percentage of family members that are on the Spectrum is pretty high...
She is a lot different than K and myself as a kid. From birth up until now.
I have read a lot of books about Autism, because I honestly feel the therapies work for almost all of our kids regardless of the diagnosis, or at least they don't hurt. Then I read Temple Grandin's books, it was like a lightbulb went off! N is so much like her... husband and I jokingly call her Temple or David. After David Sedaris, when he was a kid he licked things and had very particular behaviors!
Yes, the shampoo is one that she, every single time, will say. "What does this taste like?" "Do you think it tastes like honey?" "It looks like honey" "Hmmm, No it doesn't taste like honey"

But she has do it every time, no matter what we say! She licked her cars today, saying it made them go faster...

Oh and she still has the cluttering of her speech, which gets worse when she is anxious or excited.

 

[smallworld]

I concur with an evaluation by a developmental pediatrician. It sounds as if she has enough red flags to warrant it. Once you get into the dev pediatrician, he may have some suggestions on who would be best in the Tuscon area to do further testing.

Good luck.

 

[susiestar]

Totoro,

I would get her into the Dev pediatrician and see if they have a multi-disciplinary evaluation available. this is where a group of different professionals test and hten work together to find the correct diagnosis.

Our dev pediatrician did this with EVERY patient, even the medicaid ones (the ones most docs barely see, much less test in depth). I think wizard had 9 or 10 hours of testing, then the docs met 3 times to discuss results among themselves (some of hte meetings were during the testing process so they could refine the tests and do whatever tests seemed most useful).

The meeting with the dev pediatrician and the other docs was wonderful. They were really indepth and on the ball. Even though Wizard made eye contact, used a HUGE vocabulary, made and understood puns and humor, they still diagnosed aspergers. And they were right.

A neuropsychologist was one of the professionals involved, but NOT the only one. I really really think a multidisciplinary evaluation is the way to go. This way you have different professionals and they each can pick up on different things.

Just in my opinion.

But yes, I do think N needs more evaluation and yes, she probably has some PTSD from K's behaviors. Not much you can do about the PTSD but be there for her, keep her safe, and maybe play therapy at this age. But when she is older you will need to get some therapy for her.

Hugs,

Susie

 

['Chelle]

I think getting the most thorough evaluation you can get is the way to go. I always think to err on the side of doing more tests than needed, than not doing enough and missing what's really going on. If she is diagnosis'd on the spectrum (and your list of behaviors made me think probably so), the sooner there are treaments/therapies in place the better. Our kids are each so different. Many of the behaviors are similar, but the degree to which they do it is different, and some will have eye contact and some won't, some have more problems in speech and some not, and etc. etc.

Hope things go well for you in finding the pediatrician, neuro-psychiatric etc.

 

[totoro]

Thanks everyone, I fully agree! It is just the process of getting everyone else to agree with me! Know what I mean??
Here in Spokane they have 1 Dev. pediatrician and I begged her to see K and N, No doing. I begged everyone for MDE for both of them as well. I think maybe with the University in Tucson and so many health professional in Tucson we have a fighting chance.
I agree with the fact that even though she does things like make eye contact etc, she has red flags, but this is what denied her as far as the SD was concerned. They are still way behind, "Well she does not line things up and she makes eye contact, good speech at times, No way can she be on the spectrum"

 

[4sumrzn]

I would say go for the extensive evaluations. We were advised last year to start searching out of the area we are in for new evaluations becuase the resources would benefit our situation. We did & have started all over at Cincinnati Children's. So far, so good.

Not that this is a good thing, but I felt a little bit of a relief when you mentioned the licking of things....along with the dog ear comment. My difficult child has calmed down in the licking, but was AWFUL.....I won't even tell you the things I've seen her "taste"! The smelling...it's non-stop....EVERYTHING & I mean EVERYTHING! YUCK! Now, my poor dog has suffered by having his ears dug in & smelled any chance difficult child gets for 2 years now. Not sure how my doggie puts up with it & he only yelps every once in awhile (meaning, I know he doesn't like it but "deals"). We've tried everything to help difficult child stop. Gave up.

So, for some reason I thought my difficult child was the "only one" & now I see she isn't.