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Best place to pursue Aspie eval and encouraging a mom just starting on ASD journey.


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I am having a conversation with a friend of a friend this afternoon. Her son is 9 and they are starting the process of having him evaluated for Asperger's. One of her questions is where to start. Here is what she emailed me:

 

We have the name of a neuropsycholigical psychologist, the name of a neurologist, and my mother in law just also told us about Touch Point Autism

Our dx was obtained through a developmental pediatrician that works at Texas Children's Hospital here in Houston and I honestly do not know much about other ways to pursue a dx. I do not know if her son is in public or private school but my first thought was that if he is in ps she needs to find out from what source will her school district recognize a dx. I know where I live I have a friend who is fighting with our school district b/c they have refused giving her son any type of special ed services b/c they will only accept a dx from a particular type of doctor.

 

I would love to be able to talk to this mom more intelligently than I feel I can currently do. What would you say to a mom just staring out about where to go and what to do?

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In California a diagnosis has to be given by someone with a school counselor license/certification. This means you have to find a psychologist, usually, who was willing to jump through those bureaucratic hoops to get the credential in order to help parents with the school system.

 

However, having had my daughter tested by both a psychologist/counsellor and a neuropsychologist, I'd also add that the neuropsych gave us by far the most thorough, specific, detailed, and otherwise excellent breakdown of my daughter's strengths and weaknesses, a huge write-up and two-hour discussion explaining the scores and findings, plus a three-page list of suggestions for her future accommodations and just general ways to help her get through life, both in school and out of it.

 

That last was FAR more useful to me, over a long period of time. And while we were briefly homeschooling through the public school system here, they actually were willing to accept those scores and the diagnosis despite the lack of a school counsellor credential (maybe a PhD in neuropsych also "counts" for the district; I don't know). They did want to do other tests, certain they could find other stuff, but every test they suggested she'd already had or the neuropsych had picked an alternative equivalent one as being more suitable to my daughter. We were basically left with a PE eval and observations.

 

So in part it depends on the particular people you're working with, how much they feel compelled to defend their territory, how much wiggle room the specifics of the law gives them, etc.

 

It also depends on the reason she wants the diagnosis. Is there a reason she doesn't want to go through the school system's process (in my mind there are a lot of reasons to avoid it, but that's because of the particular people involved here and the funding cuts and how they affect special ed)? Is she looking for something whose only purpose is to qualify for and build up an IEP or 504? Or does she want more information for her own awareness and ability to help her son both in and out of school? All these factors play into how you go about choosing the person to diagnose your child. (This is not even to mention the issue of insurance!)

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