Educational diagnosis of autism, but not a real life diagnosis?

[whatamess]

Is that possible? The team seems to be leaning toward autism or emotional/behavioral disability. What if I think my child's issue look spectrum-ish, but I don't really feel he's on the spectrum. What if the evaluation. team says it looks spectrum-ish enough to impede learning even if he isn't officially diagnosis'd with autism from an outside source.

 

[slsh]

In my experience, a "diagnosis" determined by the SD doesn't/shouldn't drive the IEP. What drives the IEP is what services your child needs to receive FAPE in LRE. So whatever the educators want to call it, in my book that's great, as long as it gets the educational services. My oldest was "developmental delay" until he hit first grade. Then he morphed into orthopedic impairment and visual impairment (he's got optic nerve atrophy and cortical visual impairment on top of his cerebral palsy). When we moved to IL, he suddenly became "other health impairment". Whatever. It's bureaucratic bologna designed to get the most funding - because his disability is very severe, he's a "low incidence" kid and therefore I guess the district gets extra $$$ because of how they classify him.

The educational classification does *not* drive what services your son gets via the IEP. Your son's needs drive that.

In terms of "real life" diagnosis and treatment, I would stick with- neuropsychs, developmental peds, psychiatrists, and other MDs for the medical diagnosis. Remember that the IEP team only has you and educators on it - they are not qualified to make a medical diagnosis.

 

[Fran]

I'm pretty sure you must have a documented diagnosis by a professional who is qualified to diagnose. Autism isn't diagnosed by the school district alone.
Services are not really given for "ish"
Your child needs the appropriate evaluation by licensed specialists who deal with spectrum disorders. I tend to have testing and evaluation done privately vs.
through the school district.

 

[BusynMember]

Hi. Sorry things are rough now.

It won't help if your child does have a form of autism and he is with the emotionally disturbed kids, who can be extremely rough to work with. And it won't help to be with autistic kids or be labeled as such if he doesn't fit into the spectrum. But I would stand back and not have any preconceived notions of what your child's diagnosis is and I personally wouldn't allow the school district to make a diagnosis...they are usually wrong. For exmaple, there is no diagnosis such as "emotionally disturbed." If a child acts out, there is a reason beyond that...a neurological or psychiatric disorder that is most likely inherited from somewhere (do NOT however blame yourself). Ever! All kids on the spectrum behave differently and your twelve year old may be very different from your younger kiddo, but they can still both be affected. It does tend to run in families.

I personally greatly favor private NeuroPsychs for diagnostics. They do 6-10 hours of testing and rule in/out everything and tend to get it right more often than other professionals. Lots of us favor NeuroPsychs. You can find them at children's and university hospitals.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do