Second Opinion Update
Mar 26, 2015 8:57:22 GMT -5
Post by mack on Mar 26, 2015 8:57:22 GMT -5
Tl;dr
So we had a full day eval at CARD (KKI). It was pretty intense. They did lots of testing on how she processed things, her cognitive levels, and the ADOS-2. I also did a long interview with the psychologist on her case.
At the end of the day, we left with pretty much a comorbid diagnosis of ADHD/ASD. They confirmed the ADHD because they said she is more hyperactive than kids her age should be and she scored low on attentional tasks. However, they identified that the kind of inattentiveness was ADHD driven and not ASD driven. So I am comfortable with that diagnosis.
Based on my interview and the behavior that they observed during her testing, she fits right on the spectrum. I was spot on with my concerns. She does have pretty marked sensory issues, rigidity of thinking, inflexibility, tantrums, ritualistic behavior, poor eye contact, she does not read facial expressions or social cues. She has poor understanding of social relationships and she is unable to articulate emotions on anything beyond a superficial level. And while she performed well cognitively, they said her rigidity actually caused her to fail some of the tasks. For instance, she was unable to recreate a pattern because she refused to separate the blue blocks.
During feedback, the psych told me that going into the ADOS-2 she was certain she was going to bomb based on observations from the rest of the day. However, she did better than expected. She was below diagnostic criteria by one point. She was able to maintain a back and forth for more than 4 exchanges and she expresses interest about having someone pay attention or be present with her. The psych did caveat that her back and forth wasn't great and did only happen after she was prompted repeatedly. The presence of hyperactivity may be skewing these results. She may appear more animated than most AS kids. Also, she reviewed the services she is getting on her current IEP, and she said that she is actually getting what kids with HFA get. So I am also speculating that she may perform better socially because she's had intervention. The psych also said that she may know that she is supposed to respond to other people. She also does do better at creative thought than a lot of kids, but that is more common is girls with AS.
So while she is 99% she has AS, because she performed a little better at reciprocal interaction than expected. They want to confirm the diagnosis by re evaluating next year, just in case the ritualistic behavior and rigidity is the product of OCD not ASD.
So we are going to go ahead with behavioral therapy and social skills groups. Then we will be seeing the developmental pedi every 3 months, and going back to CARD in one year to repeat the testing.
So we had a full day eval at CARD (KKI). It was pretty intense. They did lots of testing on how she processed things, her cognitive levels, and the ADOS-2. I also did a long interview with the psychologist on her case.
At the end of the day, we left with pretty much a comorbid diagnosis of ADHD/ASD. They confirmed the ADHD because they said she is more hyperactive than kids her age should be and she scored low on attentional tasks. However, they identified that the kind of inattentiveness was ADHD driven and not ASD driven. So I am comfortable with that diagnosis.
Based on my interview and the behavior that they observed during her testing, she fits right on the spectrum. I was spot on with my concerns. She does have pretty marked sensory issues, rigidity of thinking, inflexibility, tantrums, ritualistic behavior, poor eye contact, she does not read facial expressions or social cues. She has poor understanding of social relationships and she is unable to articulate emotions on anything beyond a superficial level. And while she performed well cognitively, they said her rigidity actually caused her to fail some of the tasks. For instance, she was unable to recreate a pattern because she refused to separate the blue blocks.
During feedback, the psych told me that going into the ADOS-2 she was certain she was going to bomb based on observations from the rest of the day. However, she did better than expected. She was below diagnostic criteria by one point. She was able to maintain a back and forth for more than 4 exchanges and she expresses interest about having someone pay attention or be present with her. The psych did caveat that her back and forth wasn't great and did only happen after she was prompted repeatedly. The presence of hyperactivity may be skewing these results. She may appear more animated than most AS kids. Also, she reviewed the services she is getting on her current IEP, and she said that she is actually getting what kids with HFA get. So I am also speculating that she may perform better socially because she's had intervention. The psych also said that she may know that she is supposed to respond to other people. She also does do better at creative thought than a lot of kids, but that is more common is girls with AS.
So while she is 99% she has AS, because she performed a little better at reciprocal interaction than expected. They want to confirm the diagnosis by re evaluating next year, just in case the ritualistic behavior and rigidity is the product of OCD not ASD.
So we are going to go ahead with behavioral therapy and social skills groups. Then we will be seeing the developmental pedi every 3 months, and going back to CARD in one year to repeat the testing.
MFI issues
