Could my son have Asperger's?

[dsmithfamily5]

  My son is 7 years old. He has ADHD; and the doctor's all say that he may have Asperger's. He has always been hyper. WIthout adderall, he cannot focus at all.
   He is sensitive to touch and to sounds.  Ie water temps that were fine for his sister were burning to him.  He doesn't like to be touched at all, he doesn't like to be hugged at all. He has issues with textures of foods. He prefers to play alone   He is very shy.  He does not make eye contact at all. If someone other than one of his good friends tells him hi, he gets nervous, puts his head down, and mumbles. He is very awkward and uncoordinated.  He does not have very good manual dexterity. He runs kind of funny. His hand-eye-coordination is poor.  He cries at the drop of the hat. Once he starts crying, he is not able to make himself stop.  I used to let him cry and 5 minutes later ask him why he was crying. His answer was, "I don't know."  If something does not go as expected, or as per our routine, he loses control and cannot handle it. If told to take a shower before dinner, he will throw a tantrum and start crying when we force the issue. All because the normal routine is to eat and then get a shower. He is very routine-oriented. We try not to vary the routine just so we can maintain peace with him. If we give him a long lead time for events, he does ok.He is  very intelligent and does very well academically. He is at the top of his class. He shows very little emotion. When I deployed, he was stone faced. When something exciting happens, he remains stoic.   My questions are these: does it sound like he may have Asperger's? Can they test for Asperger's and give a solid diagnosis? What can we do to help him to adjust to society and have a normal (or somewhat normal) life? Should he be seeing an occupational therapist or someone like that?

[Jason C Bourret, Ph.D., BCBA-D]

Autism-spectrum disorders are characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction and also preservative patterns of behavior. Based on your description, I would suggest having your son assessed. The criteria are behavioral so they are always up for interpretation and a diagnosis given by one professional may not be given by another. The assessment and identification of an appropriate diagnosis can be valuable but it is also valuable to pursue avenues that may be beneficial for your son even if he doesn’t meet the criteria for a diagnosis. You can get him help for his social interaction and his perseveration on routine. There are therapists and behavior analysts who have experience working with children like your son. I would recommend seeking them out and finding someone who you and your son work well with. The earlier you can get him a little additional help, the more he’ll benefit.

[teko]

If my memory serves me right, Aspergers children usually have fixations on certain things. My grandson went thru a period of ponies. He could not have just one pony, he had to have all kinds. If one got lost, OMG! Meltdown until we found it. He can tell you anything you want to know about horses and doesnt much care if you dont want to hear it. You will hear it. All of it, like it or not you will listen until he is done telling you lol. He also cannot thro a ball or catch one. He can ride a bike but is very clumsy with it. He speaks loudly and matter of factly.  He shows no excitement recieving christmas gifts, has no particular wants and noise, specifically music and crowds will bring about a meltdown. He is academically above his peers but in a social setting he is awkward. He has just been diagnosed with aspergers and is 7. Up till now we have had different diagnosis like auditory processing disorder, language disorder, adhd. From what I understand this is fairly common to do this as the child will eventually make the diagnosis clear as they exhibit clearer symptoms the older they get. We are grateful for a diagnosis but fear that at some point this will change into something worse, as he gets older.

[nunu81]

it sounds a lot like what my son has and yes it is asperger's . does he have a way with playing with toys where he is lining up toys or anything. but i wouldn't call it adhd.

[babygirl6152]

I worked with a girl that had Asperger's and as time went on with lots of patience she learned to adapt to society and was even in the jr high then high school band- percussion. Anything memorized could be expected high scores on school work but as she got older, more complex ideas and higher level thinking skills showed to be frustrating for her. You can still have the work modified- She learned to read easily using phonics since she could learn all the phonics rules.
We used lots of modeling to show her different reactions to things so she could memorize those- for instance when she was old enough- around age 10-we told her spelling words for her tests sometimes would be out of order - not always the way she had studied them in sequence..... something that always sent her into a meltdown.... We taught her to say things like- "oh it's ok" and "maybe next time". She saw a child psychiatrist for several visits who prescribed anti anxiety meds which helped A LOT. (Zoloft) Her family doctor then took over prescribing these and of course had to increase the meds and monitor as she aged.
You can also teach social skills by modeling - we taught her to ask "how are you today?" and TRY to listen to the answer to play into a conversation. write me if you need to chat