Albert's diagnosis

I guess I should start with a brief summary of what's happened so far with Albert. His kindergarten teacher suggested I have Albert evaluated for ADHD because of his lack of attention in class. He also was having trouble academically. He saw his doctor and he saw a phsychitrist to have his IQ tested. After seeing everyone and talking to everyone and filling out a zillion papers we got the diagnosis for ADHD. He also had a delay in his fine motor skills. He went to therapy for that for a while then we quit because we thought we were moving. Anyway then in first grade his teacher suggested that maybe there was more going on than just ADHD. So we set out once again to find out what was going on.

He went back to his doctor and back to the people at school and back to have his IQ tested. So round and round we went and here we are. His doctor told me today that "After doing the evaluation with him and looking over the things you told us and his teachers told us I beleive he does have an Autism Spectrum Disorder". I knew that statement was coming but it was still hard to hear.

So the question that I have been asked and know most of you are thinking "what does that mean?" Well that's not easily answered but I will try my best. For the most part getting the diagnosis means that we will get the help for him that he needs. The things that qualify him for autism are his inflexibilty with routines, his communication akwardness (explain more later), inappropriate social behaviour, trouble expressing himself, lack of empathy, his delayed motor skills, and taking things literally and not getting certain social cues.

His biggest area of concern is his language/communication. The thing we noticed first is that he doesn't always anwer questions that are directly asked to him. You ask him something like "What are you playing?" and instead of saying I am playing Bakugans he'll say something like this bakugans name is this and this is what it does. Answering questions with facts like that is a symptom. Then getting him to get his point across is sometimes almost impossible.

I could go on and on but I won't go over every single detail. Plus I am getting tired and my mind has become blank as to what else to tell you to help explain it all. I don't understand it all yet myself so I don't do a very good job at explaining. There is so much information to take in.

The website http://www.autismspeaks.org/ has some good information. He specifically was diagnosed with pdd-nos (I beleive). At anyrate he has the high functioning kind.

It has been a emotional ride so far and sure it will continue to be.