Hi all. Zachary is 4.0. he is doing pretty well. He
points, asks for things that he wants (mostly in single word form), is
loving to his little brother, and listens well to me. He doesn't
listen all that well to his mother, and actually responds better to men
in general. Maybe it's a voice thing. He stims with cabinet
doors and spins. He will build a block tower when I am with him
that is 13 blocks high with little trouble. He loves music and
singing and goes to full-day special preschool and LOVES it. His
SLP and teachers say he is making great progress. When he is
bored or frustrated he "yells." We know he is ASD, but where on
the spectrum does he lie? That is the question.
I am scared, scared, scared. Z is scheduled for his ADOS eval.
next Monday. I am afraid that they will diagnose him as ASD with
MR. I really wish I wasn't scared about it, but I am. I
don't feel that he is MR, but he is so behind where he should be right
now. Maybe part of it is that my wife and I are both
highly-educated, and I am having a hard time dealing with a son who
will be labeled a dum-dum when he isn't. On his third birthday,
he got a wooden puzzle with shapes (square, octagon, trapezoid,
etc). There were about 9 shapes. He put the puzzle together
correctly, with NO help, in a matter of 3 or 4 minutes. He is
bright, but he has trouble with some simple things. Any time you
ask him, "what color is this?", he says, "red." Hey, at least
it's a color word, right? I am trying to work with him on
it. It is hard to get him to do non-stim things - "Do you want to
..." "No, oh, no," says he. Unless it has something
to do with climbing on the chair and banging cupboard doors.
He is pretty obedient and helpful. I am teaching him to help put
dirty dishes on the counter after we eat, and am helping teach him to
dress himself. He is getting better at it.
I just don't see that MR label, but I am worried that he will do
nothing at the eval and will be labeled for life. I know I am
being foolish, and "it's just a label," but dang it all, it's just
driving me over the edge right now and I just wanted to vent.
Thanks for "listening."
Maybe part of it is that my wife and I are both highly-educated, and I am having a hard time dealing with a son who will be labeled a dum-dum when he isn't.
That bothered me alot. MR is not being labled a dum-dum. I understand your fears about you son. Make sure if the are doing IQ testing they do a nonverbal one. IQ is a hard thing to test in someone on the spectrum. Just make sure he is getting all the help you can get for him. He is who he is. Don't get hung up on lables. Just do everything you can and love him. He will be just fine. He sounds wonderful.
Even if he were NT he would be to young to test IQ with any accuracy. Most people won't even test IQ in someone this age.
The ADOS doesn't test IQ. For a MR "diagnosis", a seperate IQ test would need to be administered. One of the reasons that ASD kids don't usually do too well on typical IQ tests is that they sometimes lack the language comprehension neccessary to follow the instructions and to understand the task and they sometimes also lack the social pressure to "perform" on cue. Thus, they may fail to demonstrate skills that they actually do have, depressing the composite score. A good way to see if this is the case is to observe the scores on the subtests to see if the non-verbal sections are significantly higher than the verbal secions.
My daughters scored MR at 3.0 (well, one was MR and the other was borderline) and at 4.0, one was 'low normal' and the other was smack in the middle of normal range. At 5.0, I think they're both safely not MR, though they haven't had a recent assessment. In the earlier IQ tests, both girls scored 20+ points higher on the non-verbal sections of the test, which is a common pattern with ASD kids that have language delays. The daughter with the more seriously delayed language also had the lower IQ. She's caught up in language, now, so it would be interesting to see if their IQs are now "even".
Anyway, try not to worry about it so much. If you're worried about a MR label being used against you, you could always request a non-verbal IQ test. However, if they do give an IQ test during the assessment, bear in mind that one of the purposes of administering a typical IQ test to a child suspected of autism is to confirm that diagnosis. You'd expect an autistic kid to have a lot of scatter amonst the subtests (some high, some average, some low) while a kid who is "just MR" is likely to have similar scores all along the subtests. One of the hallmarks of autism are these 'splinter skills' and it's part of the diagnosis process sometimes.
Been there, done that. Our oldest son was classified as mild MR on the basis of both verbal and nonverbal IQ tests. His compliance and attention issues caused him to perform horribly, and he completely lacked motivation. But he performed horribly in daily life, too, because of these issues, so we just took it as an indicator of his struggles, rather than a limit on his potential.
I think it's very important to emphasize for anyone who works with him that the sky is the only limit on his potential.
No one who knows their child has autism, wants a dual diagnosis of MR -- it's something extra to struggle with, when autism is more than enough.
I very much understand how you feel, and hope your appointment goes well.
I don't let any test tell me how our son is when some of us just don't test well at all. I use unit studies to teach him. He learns it in small pieces that way.
I feel better prepared to go into the eval. on Monday now. Thank you.Not to offend anyone but I have to admit, the MR dx is my worst fear.. call it unclassy and biased and base but I do voice the same disapointment as Zsdad!
And yet I recently came to know someone who is moderatly MR and he is TERRIFIC!!! So I know I am being very childish in hoping that my dd won't get a dual dx but...
Nothing to be sorry about. I completely understand where you are coming from. If I worried too much about what the "world" thought I would never leave the house with my son.
Again I know how you feel. He's your son, the most important thing in you life. You want the best for him. You know you son better than anyone. If the testing he gets shows anything that you don't agree with don't accept it without getting a second opinion. Or even a third. He is so young and has alot of time to make progress. I would not even worry about IQ testing until he was at least 8.
Good luck with everything.
I kind of think that that IQ testing before age 6 is not thought to be very
IMO, your son is too young for an accurate IQ test. My kids weren't tested until the end of Kindergarten, and both scored in the average range.
Here are some past threads on the subject which you may find helpful:
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17522&am p;am p;KW=mental+retardation
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16292&am p;am p;KW=mental+retardation
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15038&am p;am p;KW=mental+retardation
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14685&am p;am p;KW=mental+retardation
Best wishes to you and your family.
I think 4 is way too young for an accurate IQ test to determine MR. It wouldn't be accurate. If I were to have my boys tested they would come back MR and they definitely aren't, but as Fred stated there is no desire to perform or they don't understand the directions because of the language barrier. I wouldn't even consider it before age 6.
My son has a normal IQ, but is still far behind his peers. Because of his unique way to viewing the world and perceiving things, it is likely he will need some sort of assisted living as an adult. This doesn't bother me, but I know it does bother a lot of people.