Just FYI - Started the process to get difficult child in autism clinic again

[Shari]

for an evaluation there. DevPed was supposed to be setting it up, but yesterday, BT told me to call myself.

So I did.

I told the poor soul who answered the phones the whole story, right down to disagreeing docs, bt wanting him in more therapy than she's able to provide, and my own frustration at being the middle man. I should be hearing back soon.

My gut feeling is that the psychiatrists are right on this. Or at least closer. But I feel like a heel pushing this issue again.

You know what amazes me? DevPed could just diagnosis him Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)-not otherwise specified provisional, or whatever it is that they use, and that would get him access to the additional therapy right there. It wouldn't be immediate, but if it was going to help, we'd see some positive outcomes from it, I would think, in a relatively reasonable amount of time. She's not willing to try that route, yet she's willing to prescribe all sorts of drugs and poke and hope at a diagnosis that she agress doesn't fit, and a fix. That doesn't make sense to me.

And so I'm still wondering if I shouldn't just take the psychiatrist's diagnosis and run with it - leave devped and gang out of it...I dunno.

My head hurts.

 

[BusynMember]

What diagnosis do you think is right? Your post confused me...lol. It's so hard when you're talking online.

 

[Shari]

the Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) or some form of autism spectrum.

dev pediatrician is still sticking to "he's too social".

 

[BusynMember]

Shari, don't listen. That's what I was told. in my opinion go have him checked for Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). I hate when they do that.

 

[Shari]

How do they "check" for Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)?

 

[Shari]

Sorry, I didn't mean that to sound so short and rude. I'm exhausted today. I apologize.

 

[BusynMember]

You're not rude. There is a lot of testing, at least if you go to a neuropsychologist. My son was tested for 10+ hours. I hate when they see a kid for an hour and pull out the prescription pad without testing.

 

[Shari]

When I called this morning, the testing they said they'd do was 4 hours. That's the "full" evaluation.
That didn't sound like a full evaluation to me. And this is supposed to be one of the best centers around.

 

[Shari]

DevPed was working on it. They just called me back. Its scheduled for July 11.
I asked to have the evaluating doctor speak directly to BT and psychiatrist, as well, prior to the evaluation. Have to remember to sign releases now.

 

[BusynMember]

Well, four hours seems short. Why not ask what kind of test will be run? Tell him you want EVERYTHING.

 

[Shari]

I did. That IS everything.

I'm thinking I might be looking into going to St Louis or something.

 

[Marguerite]

difficult child 3 and difficult child 1 were each tested at one of our top multidisciplinary centres, and each time it took most of a day. Not all, just most. We arrived at about 10 am, the kid was seen first by a pediatrician to check basic things like weight, height, how well he could do things like dress himself, etc. Then the psychometric testing, which went for another few hours. I did an interview while they quizzed me about a lot of stuff (very similar to the Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) questionnaire on www.childbrain.com). We then broke for a late lunch, my son & I went for a sandwich at the cafeteria and sat in the gardens outside to eat it, while the staff analysed the results.

After lunch came the interview, where they told us the results and discussed options with us.

Anything more than that gets done piecemeal - a detailed psychometric analysis done privately, plus observations, took a number of sessions with each kid when they were younger. difficult child 3 was tested a few years ago, it took two days.

It does vary a bit, but I'd grab the 4 hour evaluation as a start, at least. Any further evaluation can make use of the results obtained, even if they want to add more tests.

And as for being "too social" - difficult child 3 LOVES being around people, he will chatter to total strangers and share intimate secrets. When he was younger he didn't discriminate between strangers or family.

Autism is not necessarily being socially withdrawn - it's more being socially inappropriate (of which 'withdrawn' is just one option).

Good luck, I hope you get your answers.

Marg