My 11 year old son

My now almost 12 year old has always been a bit different. In preschool they said it was wonderful that he could play by himself. In early elementary years he was independent. He has gone to school with the same kids for 7 years but can only tell you the names of a few. He has one friend, and gets picked on and made fun of daily. He just doesn't seem to fit in no matter what he does.

We have been through the standard diagnoses...ADD, anxiety disorder, mild depression. We had an assessment with a therapist that decided  I made my son so nervous that he couldn't function around me.....what???? This man met my son 3 times for one hour sessions and all they talked about was astronomy....for 3 hours....that doesn't seem like a fixation???

The more I read about Asperger's Syndrome, the more I see my son in the symptoms. Social ineptness, fixating on a topic, poor handwriting, not picking up on facial cues, poor motor skills...it just keeps going on down the list. He is being picked on every day but he cant figure out why and it breaks my heart. He has gotten so used to it that he only mentions it if I ask him directly if anything bad happened, then he gets so upset telling me that he cant speak. I go to the teachers time and time again with little to no results. We even pulled him out and homeschooled him for a year, but he wanted to go back and so he could make new friends....guess how that turned out.

So I guess my question is, now that he is nearly 12, how do I go about getting him tested/diagnosed so the school will finally stop calling me a neurotic mom and start helping my child.

[Rachel Thompson, Ph.D., BCBA]

I share your concern about you son's social experiences at school. I would encourage you not to be deterred by the negative reaction you have received from the school and other professionals. Sadly, it often takes persistent parent advocacy for children to receive the support they need at school. It should not be acceptable for your son to feel bullied. I think it would be reasonable to have your son seen by a professional who specializes in diagnosing Asperger's Syndrome. But, independent of his diagnosis, I would suggest trying to identify some social skills training for your son and working with the school to improve his experiences there.

[boywithmanydisabilities]

If the school isnt helping the child and is calling you a neurotic mum then find a new school for him, and whatever you do do not make the mistake my parents did and take him out of school, it just makes the problem a lot worse. get him diagnosed then find an organisation that specialises in autistic people and get them to help did wonders for me.