Dyslexia and Aspergers??

[momto3innc]

Well, I've been lurking for a while and figured I might as well post since I think I'll be on here a lot coming up:001_smile:. Sorry in advance...this might be long.

 

My oldest ds is 6, in first grade. Up until about 2 1/2 months ago, I thought everything was basically on track. He's had some fine motor trouble, but has really improved using HWT. He has struggled with reading, but has always been making progress, so I was sort of into the "late bloomer" theory...until I read a description of dyslexia online and realized he had virtually every symptom. There is a small private school for dyslexics in our area and so I took him there to be tested. She pretty much immediately agreed that he was "significantly dyslexic" and he now gets tutoring at this school 4 days a week for 45 minutes. He has shown great improvement which is awesome.

 

Well, after our two rounds of testing with her, she then said "I really think you need to go to a psychologist for more intensive testing. I think there is a lot more going on here". She thinks he has aspergers. As I'm sure many of you understand, I was fairly crushed. I used to know someone who had severe aspergers who, quite frankly, was just so hard to be around and that unfortunately is my mental image of aspergers. We are beginning testing now, but I would just love to get your wise opinions.

 

Here are his symptoms:

-high IQ (around 135) with significant dyslexia

-very creative, imaginative, loves to play pretend

-very advanced vocabulary...he's like an old man in a 6 year old body

-he struggles with eye contact. He does pretty well with family and close friends and kids, but poorly with adults he doesn't know or if he is giving a lot of information

-he is very clumsy in athletics. He actually was quick learning to ride a bike/scooter, but soccer, catching, throwing, etc... are a mess

-he loves being around people and plays well with kids his age...we've never had any problems with other kids and him although he does sometimes seem different to me than them due to his large vocabularly/speech trouble/clumsiness.

-he is "quirky". He makes jokes that we don't always get (I don't know if anyone would get them). He doesn't laugh at inappropriate things, but sometimes when he laughs at something funny he laughs strangely, almost a fake laugh.

-he has articulation trouble. He has been in speech in the past. He has improved a lot and no longer qualifies through the public school system, but can still be hard to understand if you don't know him at all.

-He is never hyperactive, UNLESS we have new adults over at the house. Then he can get a little crazy, almost like he's trying to show off to them. It's not terrible, but it's not his usual behavior and he struggles to control it.

-He is very loving and affectionate, loves to hug and snuggle and is definitely our most compliant child.

 

So I'm doing this dyslexia tutoring, getting more testing done, looking into more speech therapy, and worried about aspergers.

I've also set an appointment with a vision therapy doctor, but the original dyslexia teacher and the psychologist have said they don't think it will help so I'm thinking I might cancel that.

 

Sorry for the book...if you stayed with it...any thoughts??? Could this be aspergers? How do they go about diagnosing correctly?

[Guest]

Many of the "soft" neurological syndromes overlap as far as symptoms and characteristics. You'll find many threads on this board in which people discuss the overlaps and the difficulties of untangling all the various components of their child's particular challenges.

 

I have just finished writing some long posts this morning, so I'll take a break and come back later. But I wanted to leave you with some reassurance. Whether or not you get the official diagnosis of Asperger's, your child will not change -- he'll be the same kid you love and find so enchanting and frustrating. Dd and my dh both have Asperger's. Dh is a chemistry professor. Dd is fourteen and is really a lovely person I enjoy being around -- in fact, most of the time I am honored and humbled by being around her. She is truthful, loving, kind-hearted, imaginative, fun to listen to and do things with. She's had a lot of help, several rounds of therapies, that dh never had (he was sent to boarding school in England instead) and she shows every sign of being a wonderful adult. There's no doubt they have challenges other people do not; but on the other hand, other people also have enormous challenges in other arenas that dd and dh never will.

[pdalley]

My oldest has High Functioning Autism and Dyslexia.

 

He's clumsy, quirky and 99 percent of the time a delight to be around. Sorry the other person left a negative impression on you but I have three on the spectrum - have traits myself and know a lot more.

 

I'd say do further testing - now. I didn't do the testing for dyslexia until he was 12. I trusted what the school was telling me about it being a byproduct of his autism.

[merry gardens]

...-he is "quirky". He makes jokes that we don't always get (I don't know if anyone would get them). He doesn't laugh at inappropriate things, but sometimes when he laughs at something funny he laughs strangely, almost a fake laugh....

I want to offer my opinion and experience with boys. The humor of most boys around your son's age is typically unsophisticated and highly questionable. I used to worry about my boys sense of humor too, then I started noticing that all the boys at that age seemed to do the same thing. They fit right in with all their little friends, and they all seemed to think the other's joke was funny. And then there's the occassional fake laugh, when they think somethings suppose to be funny. (Besides fake laughs, they all seem to develop strange fake smiles for pictures a little later.)

 

I won't comment on all the other stuff, and you might certainly want to explore your concerns further, but it's normal for a 6 year old boy to tell non-funny jokes, especially when they make the jokes up themselves. Maybe get a kid's joke book, start telling him more jokes and see if it starts to click. If his sense of humor doesn't progress, then it might be cause for concern, but at this point I don't think you should worry about his odd sense of humor.

[AngieW in Texas]

these characteristics fit my dyslexic dd at your ds's age:

-high IQ (around 135) with significant dyslexia

-very creative, imaginative, loves to play pretend

-very advanced vocabulary...he's like an old man in a 6 year old body

-he loves being around people and plays well with kids his age...we've never had any problems with other kids and him although he does sometimes seem different to me than them due to his large vocabulary

 

 

these fit my Aspie at your ds's age:

-he struggles with eye contact. He does pretty well with family and close friends and kids, but poorly with adults he doesn't know or if he is giving a lot of information

-he is very clumsy in athletics. He actually was quick learning to ride a bike/scooter, but soccer, catching, throwing, etc... are a mess

-he is "quirky"

-he has articulation trouble. He has been in speech in the past. He has improved a lot and no longer qualifies through the public school system, but can still be hard to understand if you don't know him at all.

-He is very loving and affectionate, loves to hug and snuggle and is definitely our most compliant child.

 

 

My Aspie dd is my easiest child, although I do have to plan everything around her. I have to be very careful not to overload her or let her get very frustrated.

[Dobela]

Frist, don't cancel the vision therapy eval appointment. VT doesn't cure or treat dyslexia, but he may have some additional vision issues that may also be effecting his reading/school work. You want to make certain that he doesn't have any other problems in the background like poor tracking, convergence issues, or depth issues. The problems with throwing balls, soccer, and catching might be blamed on vision (tracking and depth) at least partially.

 

Since you are looking at everything, I would go ahead and ask for a Physical Therapy and an Occupational therapy evaluation. PT would see if the physical clumsiness is due to poor muscle tone or motor planning issues. OT would help you see if there is more happening sensory wise that could be addressed.

 

If it has been a year or more since the last speech assessment, I would update that as well. Each year a child ages they are expected to do more. It could be that while he didn't qualify before he might now just because he is older.

 

 

 

My brother is almost 40 and was diagnosed with Aspergers/Autism in his 30s. He has a very high IQ as well. he began speech therapy at very young ages due to articulation and receptive language problems. He has a huge technical vocabulary. When he was 18 I remember his testing showing that he had a vocabulary of someone with advanced degrees. However, if you listen to him closely, he doesn't always use the words in correct context.:001_huh: Most people in a casual conversation with him don't know what the words mean so they assume he is using them correctly. He has always been very affectionate, sometimes too much so and in inappropriate ways with people outside of family (ie, you can't rub the backs of everyone you know with out asking first, and we don't hug during business transactions) . My brother has a very odd sense of humor, or at least to us in the family. He also doesn't get jokes. Then he is very frustrated when his attempts at jokes fall flat. He also loves being around people and will position himself in the middle of every conversation and group whenever possible. He however doesn't use eye contact appropriately. He will talk forever and never look at the people listening to see if they are bored, interested, wanting to speak... He had friends as a young child but as he grew older his lack of interest in anything outside of Star Trek very much narrowed his list of potential friends. In his teens his weird jokes and inappropriate affection also caused problems.

 

 

So anyway, yes, your child might have Aspergers. But I would look at him completely - and have him assessed by every component possible that may help you. I would start with the doctor you use and ask for referrals. Take your list and ask the reading tutor for a list of her concerns. It may be that she has worked with many more children diagnosed with Aspergers and she is recognizing some of the same characteristics in your child. You also need to remember that Aspergers has degrees - some children are barely effected but still need occassional support while others are profoundly effected and may struggle thru adulthood and need many more interventions.

[Guest]

Frist, don't cancel the vision therapy eval appointment. VT doesn't cure or treat dyslexia, but he may have some additional vision issues that may also be effecting his reading/school work. You want to make certain that he doesn't have any other problems in the background like poor tracking, convergence issues, or depth issues. The problems with throwing balls, soccer, and catching might be blamed on vision (tracking and depth) at least partially.

 

Since you are looking at everything, I would go ahead and ask for a Physical Therapy and an Occupational therapy evaluation. PT would see if the physical clumsiness is due to poor muscle tone or motor planning issues. OT would help you see if there is more happening sensory wise that could be addressed.

 

 

:iagree: OT helped tremendously with dd's balance; but it took VT to make her comfortable with throwing and catching (and dodging) a ball, to gain reading stamina, and to develop her peripheral vision and depth perception (no wonder she used to bang into everything). You just never know until you get the evaluation (and sometimes not even then).

 

A diagnosis can bring together a spread of symptoms or issues under one umbrella category or definition; but unfortunately, there's nothing I know of that treats that entire package. You have to pursue therapies and treatments for each issue. Sometimes, when you're really lucky, something like VT or OT can deal with a couple of things that are interconnected at one go. But usually it's a very piecemeal, scattered search for therapies (plural). Dd went through the most intensive phase of therapies in about two years, so for many Aspies, this doesn't last a long time... although it can feel like it sometimes, for both of you. The younger the child when you start, the better, both in terms of the child cooperating and for what it can smooth out of his path in his development.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Guest

[momto3innc]

Thank you so much for all the replies. I really appreciate your thoughts and I'm processing through them and trying to wrap my mind around everything.

 

Thanks particularly for the thoughts on Vision Therapy. I've heard such positive things about VT on these forums and one other I frequent, and was a bit thrown when the two professionals I'm working with said otherwise.

 

Thank you SO much!