Who diagnosed your child - dev. peds, neurologist, child psych other?

Amber - posted on 06/26/2010

At 18 months I brought up my concerns to our normal pedi (I did not mention autism but it was in the back of my head) she said to wait till 2. At his 2 year check up she referred us to a behavioral neurologist, that specialized in Autism out of Childrens Hospital Boston. He was diagnosed at 24 months.

Melissa - posted on 06/25/2010

My son was put on the watchlist by both his pediatrician and an assesment team when he turned two, and then he was officially diagnosed with autism by the developmental specialist when he turned three. Both times he had global screenings, just by different teams.

Nicole - posted on 06/25/2010

My daughter is six years old and was just diagnosed by her psychologist with asperegers. For years I was told different things and that she would grow out of it. Now that she has be diagnosed I can understand her more and able to learn to work with her instead of getting frustrated.

Teresa - posted on 01/05/2010

The TEACCH center in Gastonia, North Carolina. diagnosed Ira We also go to a Autism specialist in Concord, NC

Elizabeth - posted on 01/04/2010

Child psychologist in a children's acute psychiatric clinic. That was AFTER she'd been mis-diagnosed in a children's mental health development center as having OCD at age 5.

Petra - posted on 01/04/2010

hi Renee,my son was 3 when a group child psycholist diagnosed my boy,the results of these test were that my boy could nothing,that was hard to read,my son from 3 was for them a boy from 15 months old,now almost 3 years later he can read,play computergames,play's with us,okey mostley he's a fighter,but most importent is,he speaks, he's getting smarter the only difficult thing with him is that he has problems to fall in sleep,but I love him the way he is,greetings from belgium petra

April - posted on 01/04/2010

I have a daughter that is 13 with Aspergers. She was diagnosed at age 9 by a child psychologist that specializes in Autism Spectrum Disorders. She is high functioning so it was very hard to diagnose. My husband and his ex-wife always knew there was something "different" about her, but never had her evaluated. When I met him I noticed immediately that something was "different" and that we needed to get her evaluated to get her some support. She is 13 now and is doing wonderful in school. Because of the diagnosis we now know how to help and encourage her instead of expecting her to be able to do the things that children her age do automatically. I strongly encourage anyone with questions to seek answers until they are satisfied and not stop looking just because one Dr says everything is ok. A mother just knows!

Michelle - posted on 01/04/2010

At the age of 2, or there abouts, Craig was diagnosed with Devolpmental Delays by a Developmental Group at all Childrens Hospital here in Florida. Within in a few months he was dignosed PDDNOS, Pervassive Devolopmental Disorder (Not Otherwise Specified). This diagnosis was given by a psychologist. This was given at that time since he fit into so many criteria under the PDD umbrella, there are 6 underneath it. At the age of 8 Craig was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, which fits him like a glove. He is now 17, and we are so vey glad that we followed through with evaluations (which I strongly reccomend) so that yu get the proper treament and eduactional support that you will need in the future.

Karen - posted on 01/03/2010

A child pshychologist in Madison diagnosed my son. However, there was a lot of great input from past and present teachers and myself.

Michelle - posted on 01/02/2010

My son Randy was diagnosed at 5yrs I was telling the doctors at 2 yrs something was not right. It finally took two preschool teachers who had family members with autism to see something was not right. They told me of Far Northern Regional Center. They diagnosed PDD-NOS. My son is now 8 1/2 and we are going thru more evaluations because they believe he may have been misdiagnosed and he could place higher on the spectrum.

Barbara - posted on 01/02/2010

Our GP noticed some things that were red flags so after the specialist put tubes in his ears for chronic ear infections we went to a Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders this is where our son was diagnose when he was 2 (he is now 4) as a high functioning Autistic. The place that did the diagnosis had a panel of people that did testing and they collect all the information from the tests that they did the day we went. I had to fill in a lot of answers to questions and get it to them before the appointment that took all day long. we had the initial diagnosis the same day but got the final review from the panel about 2 weeks later.

Jan - posted on 01/02/2010

for our first son DX we went through a panel then as we didnt seem to be getting anywhere baled up the auti expert and asked for an assessment from him. This son is also ID so I can understand it took longer to DX the autism as well. then second son went through the school system when he was in Grade 3/4 had enough of the time wasting after over a year and booked to see a auti specialist in Melbourne. He is DX with Aspergers and Tourettes. then our last daughter we just went straight to the auti phycologist specialist and she is also aspergers. I have three DX ASD and three NT's.
My advice is never go through the school system. Jan

Geralyn - posted on 01/02/2010

Some of the posts below definitely emphasize the need to find someone with expertise in autism. Seek out a developmental pediatrician, psychiatrist, neurologist or psychologist who has a particular expertise in autism and related conditions. While these doctors may be qualified to diagnose DSM IV disorders, they may not necessarily be experts in autism. It may prevent delays in getting diagnoses so that appropriate early intervention services may be sought.

Jennifer - posted on 01/02/2010

Sorry, forgot to answer the question between autism and Aspergers. Asperger's is a high functioning form of Autism. Considered an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Asperger's children tend to do very well academically, but struggle with social skills. For example, my son rides his bike to karate classes which are less than 1/4 mile from our house. He does this 3-4 times a week. One day he doesn't come home on time. After 1/2 hour of waiting and calling his cell phone, we finally called the police. 2 hours later he shows up and said that he tried to take another route home and got lost. He didn't understand why everyone was upset because he knew where he was and was just trying to figure out how to get home. I asked why he didn't pick up his cell phone or call and he said he didn't hear it ring (because it was in his bag) and that he didn't think he needed to call because he didn't need any help. He was really clueless as to why the police were there and everything. People just don't make sense to him. There is a really great book out there called Asperger's Syndrome by Tony Attwood. It is written in real people language and explains a lot more about Asperger's. I hope this helps.

Jennifer - posted on 01/02/2010

Therese, take him to be evaluated by a Child Psychologist. Even if it is not Asperger's then you will know what it is and be able to address it properly. Knowing is half the battle. I had the same battle with my daughter. She is not on the Autism Spectrim but we knew that something was going on. She got very good at faking being able to read. She would just skip the words that she didn't know. She also would "forget" to turn in homework and was failing the class. When she was evaluated by a Child Psychologist we found out that she has Dyslexia and a reading disorder. Now that we know what is going on, we can start addressing it. She was 12 and is now doing wonderfully. Her grades have gone from a F in English to a B. Huge difference. It is never too late.

Renee - posted on 01/02/2010

Therese - Any of these professionals can diagnose your child -- developmental pediatrican, child psychologist or neurologist. As moms WE see things they do not. I mean a 5 minute look at any of our kids would not give the whole picture. An evaluation takes hours not minutes. Get a referral from your childs doctor for one of the specialists listed. It's not too late either there's is alot you can still do.

Maree - posted on 01/02/2010

My son wasn't diagnosed with asperegers and ADHD until he was about 4 1/2yrs old, by a pediatrician through child health. he was then put into a Early Childhood Development Program.
We then went to a Child Psychologist, who could only give us advice, not a bad thing since the other just wanted to drug him.
He goes to a public school, which was a good choice. Parents who have enrolled their behavior challenged child to a private school said that, all they seam to do is complain about the child.

Therese - posted on 01/02/2010

what is the difference between aspergers and autism? My son is 11 and really struggling in school and with social and eating issues. I suspect that he is high functioning "something" but no one seems to take me seriously. I feel that I'm being judged as an over critical, lazy parent. I love my son dearly and want the best for him. I feel like I have been lazy by not insisting to be taken seriously with my concerns. Is it commen for parents to overlook important signs or minimize them so that they do not have to face that something might be wrong? do you know of anyone I should be talking too? feeling lost and too late. Therese

Renee - posted on 01/02/2010

To everyone on here - YES there is hope I truly believe that for every child. I think sometimes I almost lose sight of it because of the everyday struggles with my son. And sometimes my daughter gives me a tougher time than he does LOL! These kids can and do get better and have success even if it's just getting that next word out or doing that next step in therapy. Those are our everyday wins.

Jennifer - posted on 01/02/2010

My son has Asperger's and was not diagnosed until age 6 by a child psychologist. If they are high functioning then it is harder to recognize unless red flags start popping up. This did not happen until he was in school.

Kelly - posted on 01/01/2010

Quoting Renee:

Quoting Kelly:

Oh wow.. So i thought it was bad enough him being 2 and not being tested for it. Im glad there are others out there going through this..

Susan and Renee do your children talk alot? or did they at age 2??

My son talked at age 1 but then regressed and lost all his developmental milestones.  By age 2 1/2 he lost verbal communication, and stopped interacting with everyone.  He started lining up toys and perseverating on spinning objects.  He would walk on his toes too.  We had no idea this was autism.   We thought all children with autism were screaming, rocking, head banging children.  Our boy was sweet and affectionate.  My husband left 2 1/2 years ago when my son had just turned 6.  We have a daughter too and she is not affected by ASD.  The kids are now 10 and 8.  My son is very verbal now with 4 1/2 years of speech, occupational therapy and habilitation.  He receives therapy at school and at home.  He still has trouble doing things like board games where he has to take turns and is learning to lose gracefully (which is not easy), if he loses he typically throws the entire game, pieces and all over the room.  Still he has a genius IQ and can get past firewalls on the computer - I know the FBI will come looking for him one day LOL.  You are fortunate that you are getting your diagnosis at such a young age (2 is great).  My son was 4 as I said.  It's a gift to get help too.  Good luck to you. 

At the moment since he was about 1 he was diagnosed as having GDD (global development delays)..

He doesn't seem to line things up just yet. With GDD they treat them with similar therapies .. Occupational therapy for fine motor gross skills and hands on stuff, Speech therapy for speech, And physio for walking, climbing, jumping , running, etc.. So thats a good start for Alex.. I noticed whenever we have our ceiling fan on though he will sit there and watch it spin. Alex doesnt like attention on him.. or affection. You pick him up and cuddle him , he'll pretty much push you away.. And he does this thing with his head where he's kind of shaking it around .. and does the flapping with his arms..  I hope we dont have too much trouble getting a diagnosis with him.. Gets so frustrating not knowing whats going on in his head..

Im Glad that there does seem to be some hope though renee. By the sounds of it the therapies have really helped your son get to where he is today.

Im in Australia so im not sure how different the testing is here, but i gather it would be similar.. We go through the paediatrician and then i guess referred to specialist who will do the testing :)

Thankyou :)

Kelly - posted on 01/01/2010

Quoting Renee:

Quoting Kelly:

Oh wow.. So i thought it was bad enough him being 2 and not being tested for it. Im glad there are others out there going through this..

Susan and Renee do your children talk alot? or did they at age 2??

My son talked at age 1 but then regressed and lost all his developmental milestones.  By age 2 1/2 he lost verbal communication, and stopped interacting with everyone.  He started lining up toys and perseverating on spinning objects.  He would walk on his toes too.  We had no idea this was autism.   We thought all children with autism were screaming, rocking, head banging children.  Our boy was sweet and affectionate.  My husband left 2 1/2 years ago when my son had just turned 6.  We have a daughter too and she is not affected by ASD.  The kids are now 10 and 8.  My son is very verbal now with 4 1/2 years of speech, occupational therapy and habilitation.  He receives therapy at school and at home.  He still has trouble doing things like board games where he has to take turns and is learning to lose gracefully (which is not easy), if he loses he typically throws the entire game, pieces and all over the room.  Still he has a genius IQ and can get past firewalls on the computer - I know the FBI will come looking for him one day LOL.  You are fortunate that you are getting your diagnosis at such a young age (2 is great).  My son was 4 as I said.  It's a gift to get help too.  Good luck to you. 

At the moment since he was about 1 he was diagnosed as having GDD (global development delays)..

He doesn't seem to line things up just yet. With GDD they treat them with similar therapies .. Occupational therapy for fine motor gross skills and hands on stuff, Speech therapy for speech, And physio for walking, climbing, jumping , running, etc.. So thats a good start for Alex.. I noticed whenever we have our ceiling fan on though he will sit there and watch it spin. Alex doesnt like attention on him.. or affection. You pick him up and cuddle him , he'll pretty much push you away.. And he does this thing with his head where he's kind of shaking it around .. and does the flapping with his arms..  I hope we dont have too much trouble getting a diagnosis with him.. Gets so frustrating not knowing whats going on in his head..

Im Glad that there does seem to be some hope though renee. By the sounds of it the therapies have really helped your son get to where he is today.

Im in Australia so im not sure how different the testing is here, but i gather it would be similar.. We go through the paediatrician and then i guess referred to specialist who will do the testing :)

Thankyou :)

Lisa - posted on 01/01/2010

A child psychologist diagnosed our Courtney when she was 7. Before that, we were just treating her as a developmentally delayed child. Our family physician had told us she was mentally challenged, and a neurologist told us when she was 2 that it was cerebral palsy, then at 5 another neurologist told us it definitely was not cerebral palsy. We had all kinds of misdiagnosis before we were finally diagnosed with Autism. And 3 other doctors, our new family practitioner and another psycologist as well as a ear nose and throat specialist have confirmed that it is autism. We are comfortable with this diagnosis now. She is 21 and mentally around a 3 to 4 yr old level, but there are some things that she does just like a 21 yr old would do too. ?? you just never know what to expect. :)

Melanie - posted on 01/01/2010

We saw a paediatrician who referred our son to a developmental paediatrician and he eventually diagnosed our son with developmental delay. His other probs were diagnosed by a neurophysiologist x

Kimberly - posted on 01/01/2010

When I first questioned my daughter's behavior, she was about 3. Her regular pediatrician was the one who referred me to Head Start for an evaluation. She was finally diagnosed at the age of 4 after hearing tests, physical testing and ultimately referred to a psychologist. She then was sent back to Head Start for a modified pre-school

Renee - posted on 01/01/2010

Quoting Kelly:

Oh wow.. So i thought it was bad enough him being 2 and not being tested for it. Im glad there are others out there going through this..

Susan and Renee do your children talk alot? or did they at age 2??

My son talked at age 1 but then regressed and lost all his developmental milestones.  By age 2 1/2 he lost verbal communication, and stopped interacting with everyone.  He started lining up toys and perseverating on spinning objects.  He would walk on his toes too.  We had no idea this was autism.   We thought all children with autism were screaming, rocking, head banging children.  Our boy was sweet and affectionate.  My husband left 2 1/2 years ago when my son had just turned 6.  We have a daughter too and she is not affected by ASD.  The kids are now 10 and 8.  My son is very verbal now with 4 1/2 years of speech, occupational therapy and habilitation.  He receives therapy at school and at home.  He still has trouble doing things like board games where he has to take turns and is learning to lose gracefully (which is not easy), if he loses he typically throws the entire game, pieces and all over the room.  Still he has a genius IQ and can get past firewalls on the computer - I know the FBI will come looking for him one day LOL.  You are fortunate that you are getting your diagnosis at such a young age (2 is great).  My son was 4 as I said.  It's a gift to get help too.  Good luck to you. 

Sheila - posted on 01/01/2010

Hi Renee,

I think I've dsecribed the testing process to you, but for us it was his pediatrician who specializes in developmental issues.

For others reading the post (I am in Ontario)
1) Early wellness screening (community and social services provides a developmental screening process if you have any concerns...it is free and you go through the Ontario Early Years Centre to get an appointment)
2) At the screening, the Early Childhood Developmental Specialist listens to your concerns, and assesses the need. At that point, you can get a referral for a resource teacher (A MUST!!) This is the process that you need if you want ANY support in the school system when your child goes to JK/SK. They will also then refer you to your local hospital to a speech path and OT for assessment.
3) armed with this info, you go to your family doctor and he/she then refers you to a pediatrician that works with children with spectrum disorders....if you get sent to the wrong pediatrician, you will need a second referral....these waiting lists can take up to a year....as well, you can be referred to a known specialist who might turn your referral back because they are so overloaded.
4)After the initial OT/Speech & language assessment, if there are enough concerns, they then refer you on down the line to a TEAM assessment. So, OT, Speech path, resource teacher, PT if needed. They do a standardized test and more than likely come to the agreement that your child needs an ADOS test for autism. They then ask if you have your pediatrician lined up and hopefully you can say yes, because if not they need you to have one before they can perform the ADOS test.
5) Lucky you, you have a pediatrician lined up and an appointment booked in four months! HOORAY! You sign the papers and go for the ADOS
6) Two speech paths conduct the ADOS test for ASD. (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
They score separately...and hopefully, they see the same things and their scores are very similar.
7) Thankfully, you have your pediatrician lined up and they send the videotape of the testing (which is standardized) to the pediatrician who also scores the test (so now you have three people scoring your child without consultation...they do not compare scores until ALL have completed their scoring.
8) Now, your pediatrician who is very skilled, sends the videotape to a second pediatrician for confirmation....so ultimately, you end up with four highly skilled professionals assessing your child based on a standardized test. All four must be in agreement (within an acceptable range) that your child has scored in the range necessary for an autism diagnosis.
9) You then get your final diagnosis from your pediatrician.

In Ontario, you can go to a psychologist (private) to get a diagnosis. I am not familiar with that process, but I believe need a medical diagnosis to get the federal tax disability credit....which is basically the only help you get in Ontario. You can get referred to IBI therapy, which the government of Ontario covers...

The testing process began at age 3 (right after his birthday) and he was diagnosed shortly after his 4th birthday.

Friends who had travelled the path before me welcome to the world of autism in Ontario: hurry up and WAIT!

Sheila

Kelly - posted on 12/30/2009

Oh wow.. So i thought it was bad enough him being 2 and not being tested for it. Im glad there are others out there going through this..

Susan and Renee do your children talk alot? or did they at age 2??

Susan - posted on 12/30/2009

My son did not diagnosed untill 5 and then it was a speech theropist who fist saw it. She refurred us to a child psychologist who gave the finall diagosed.

Kelly - posted on 12/30/2009

Thankyou for your reply Renee. There are just so many things which don't add up with my son. Atm we're having therapy for his development delays.. OT, PT.. I just hope confirming this will give him some more avenue's to help him along. Just feel very lost for him. He won't talk all he says is mum and Dad and the usual babble..

Hopefully it doesnt take a long time to diagnose him.

What age was your son when he was going through all the testing? Hope you don't mind all the questions.

Renee - posted on 12/30/2009

At least with us we made the appointment with a developmental pediatrician and we sat with him and our son in a room for three hours while we answered about 300 questions about Miles (our son). He observed him and at the end of the 3 hours the doctor said, I'm sorry your son has autism. That was the beginning of our road, 4 years ago. You may want to speed up the testing process as the sooner the better. The earlier you begin therapy the better for the child and your family.

Kelly - posted on 12/30/2009

Im at the moment looking into having my 2yr old son tested for Autism. Myself and partner and most people around us are pretty sure its what Alex has. Im getting a referral from GP to see the local Paed here. The paed we seen at 18mths with Alex, said that Alex was on the path for Autism at the time, but because he has GDD it was too soon to tell..



What happens with the testing??



Happy to Help :)