You are a parent that hears each problem as another catastrophe. Not so. Each new diagnosis is a 'new' fact, another piece to the puzzle known as your child. With each new piece, the picture comes a little more into focus...maybe not to you, but to the professionals that evaluate, educate, and work with your child. Its like being in spring vegetable garden that you didn't plant. "Oh, onions instead of chives. Bell peppers instead of squash" Each new discovery provides a pathway, a worn pathway. Others have been on that pathway and there are things helpful for those on that pathway...things that won't work for kids/autistics on another pathway. It's like the haves and the have-nots...its a good thing. You can't help it, reduce it, improve it, whatever it unless you can identify it. BINGO...they suspect another clue...some of the signs are there others aren't so they are waiting ...not jumping the gun..waiting with patience. RememberMom, this is what they are passionate for, what they live for, what they spent years of college to learn..to diagnose, treat, improv, modify. To them its a celebration, another piece to the puzzle. Autism is a glass that is half-full..and another diagnosis adds water to the glass. Its the wa I see it, the only way my spirit has ever let me see it. It's a look forward! Good-nite
It is always SO hard.
How are his pragmatics and semantics? (social uses of speech and recognition of it?).
Heck if he is starting to read and spell, that's a LOT! Wish my 6 and 3 mos. even TRIED. She will scrawl a series of letters but they have nothing to DO with words, or phonics, or spelling, yet.
Tzoya and Cocoa,Thank you both for your replies you (cocoa) have helped me a great deal and i thank you for helping me see that this is a good thing, now i can work towards helping Deacon the best we can.
Thanks
Hunter
Hunter, a SLD is not necessarily a bad thing. It's like Dyslexia or maybe NVLD (nonverbal learning disability). And perhaps without further development of his verbal and nonverbal skills, they ARE giving you as much diagnosis as they can.
Did they give you any suggestions for therapies, for him? What else did they say?
Foxl, Not much more i can say we are waiting for the report to be sent out. It would make me feel better if it was Dyslexia or NVLD as i could find out what therapy would be best. As he is only 6.5 years old, we have been told to diognose exactly what SLD he has he would need to be at least 8 years old.
He is doing speech therapy and she is working on his reading and spelling. we were told that would be enough for now. How can that be? He struggles so much now, i need to know what else i can do. Should i have the speech concentrait on his expressive and receptive languages and get him a tutor for his reading and spelling?. Its so hard to know what to do.
I am starting to feel a good about is now, i'm glad to have picked it up now and not years down the track. Realy its just one more piece of the puzzel.
Hunter
I got the report back today and its not very flattering! His IQ score was 88, a little lower than i expected (hes so smart, mainly in science), but thats fine .it was the DX of auditory processing disorder and semantic-pragmatic disorder im confused about. Is that different from his Aspergers DX or is in addition to it? what does it mean?. If you,or any one can explain it to me i would realy apreciate it.
Thanks
Hunter
Hunter -- Auditory processing can be either "central," or brainstem, or can be cerebral and part of the autism, so hard to say. If it is Central I do not think it can resolve, but from what I ahve read in autism it can be relegated to different parts of the brain.
As for IQ, FORGET about it. That number has nothing to do with your son's intelligence, I am convinced. Don't stop believing in what you know about him!
Semantic-Pragmatic is commonly diagnosed in autism -- semantic means word meaning and pragmatic means social use or meaning of language.
I was hoping it would show me that he has dyslexia or something so i could do more for him. I'm so
Any suggestions?
Hunter