superthor1022

New Member
I stumbled upon this site recently. I wish I foud it sooner.

So our son was diagnosed with Emotional Behavior Disorder, ADD and ODD at 4 years old. He currently take Intuniv in the morning and Guanfacine(Tenex) in the afternoon. As we struggle with severe behavior and anxiety problems and the more I read about Autism and/or Aspergers
... exhibit many features of an autism spectrum disorder including inconsistent eye contact, somewhat limited peer relationships, poor conversational reciprocity, limited imaginary play, a narrow focus of interests, behavioral rigidity, and a number of atypical sensory(sounds, smell, chewing/biting on things behaviors.
the more I think he may be on that spectrum. Is 4 years old too young to be accurately diagnose these type of problems? Should we have him retested?
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Well... on one hand, mine were diagnosed with ADD at 5 and 6... so yes, it can and does show up young. And yes, many kids who are Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), get caught young... but LOTS do not. (don't ask this board how many of us have had very LATE dxes on all sorts of issues!)

What kind of professional did the evaluation that came up with these dxes for your child? How comprehensive was the evaluation? Did they even consider things like autism spectrum and Aspergers?
 
T

TeDo

Guest
Not at all. Actually, that's a great age to be evaluated (by the RIGHT person of course) and get services started. That way a lot of things can be in place so when he starts Kindergarten, he'll be farther along and you can have a better idea of what kinds of problems might need to be addressed by an IEP at the school.

Can you give us an idea of the behaviors you are dealing with and as much detail as possible of an incident to put the behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) context? That would help a lot. There will be a LOT of other questions to get to know you and your son better so we can give you better advice and hopefully steer you in the right direction. Emotional Behavior Disorder is typically a "label" the school puts on kids that have behavior issues. It's a category. As for the ODD, yea, most of us have been there done that only to find out it wasn't that at all but was rather simply the symptoms of something else like Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

Welcome to our little corner of the world. If you stick around, you will get the best, most experienced "EXPERTS" (parents who have walked in your shoes) than you will find anywhere. And the support is phenominal.
 

superthor1022

New Member
thanks. So he is 8(next month). going into 2nd grade. We have struggled through K and 1st grade with the help of some great teachers and social workers. his troubling behaviors are (among many others) inability to make -keep- friends, bullying, bad anxiety- especially with unknown situations, terrible verbal and physical abuse of my wife and I when we try to discipline, lack of ability to control his emotions, lack of ability to filter what is in head head, lack of taking any responsibility. he has what we call 'Hyper-interest' in some topic (BMX, Vantrilloquist puppets,) that he obsesses about for a spell and then moves on to the next obsession.

We had a very reputable (Fraser.org) organization do his evaluation. However, we felt rushed through the process and then they lost the information and couldn't get us the report for another 4-5 months.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
It is a GREAT age to get services started.

It is very likely that the diagnosis will not hold up through the years. My spectrum kid was diagnosed as ADHD at three, as ADHD/ODD at five, as bipolar at seven and finally, since he was becoming more and more autistic-like in the way he related to people that even others pointed it out, we tossed out the medications (after tapering them) and took him to a neuropsychologist. We have since taken him to several because I believe in second, third and fourth opinions. Even the school finally agreed he is on the high end of the spectrum. But nobody dared say that in his early years. by the way, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) children often do very poorly on medicaton or have strange reactions to them. My son has been medication free since age 11 and he's tons better without the medications. I would take a wait and see attitude on the diagnosis. and be cautious on the medications, but happily give him any interventions you can get. THEY will not harm him, no matter what the diagnosis ultimately turns out to be.


I believe in Mom Gut. He does sound very spectrumish. Any speech problems or other quirky behaviors?
 
T

TeDo

Guest
I'm with MWM in that what you described does sound very spectrumy. If I were you, I'd treat is as such since strategies and services that work for spectrum kids also work for most other kids. If you can get independent Occupational Therapist (OT) and Speech evaluations for sensory and language processing issues, you might find some of the biggest struggles our kids have. If you can find really good people to do these evaluations, they will be BIG helps. Has he had an evaluation since he was 4 or was that the most recent? If he hasn't, I would also push for a neuropsychologist evaluation if you can find a GOOD one.
 

superthor1022

New Member
This is all very interesting to me. I guess I never really thought about diagnosis' changing. But that seems to be obvious now that i think about it. my wife and I hae been discussing having him retested. Not sure what that means really though...
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I recommend a neuropsychologist. They do a lot more intensive testing than other professionals. But even at eight, we got the wrong diagnosis. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) tends to be diagnosed later, if it is the higher functioning kind. Beware of a wrong diagnosis of bipolar...that one REALLY cost my son. And he is nineteen now and clearly NOT bipolar...in fact, he isn't moody at all. Where do they come up with these diagnoses?Sometimes I really wonder. It's why I trust Mom Gut.
 
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