services for autistic-like behaviors different from adhd

A child, having had severe developmental delay, language acquistion and pragmatics delay, learning delay, genetic defect that manifests in facial dysmorphism, and the above symptoms, was assessed by school for possible autism spectrum disorder and rated as not PDD.  The private assessment by the psychologist was deemed as positive for PDD.  An IEE was done and the psychologist that did it said the child was just severly impulsive, attributing to ADHD with severe language problems.  The school then pushed the child into the regular classroom, although a year before they had elligibilized him MR on a single subtest score IQ 69 non-verbal; while there were several non-verbal 89s and one 120.  What are we to make of this?

[William L. Holcomb, Ph.D., BCBA-D]

I am not sure if you are speaking as a parent or educational professional, but in either case my primary recommendation is to try and locate a neurologist or neuropsychologist to help understand the test results you have already and possibly to conduct additional assessments to help clarify the child’s learning problems.  Particularly in light of the range of subtest scores you list, I would recommend someone who has extensive experience with children with “unusual” assessment profiles.  Individuals with wide variation on subtest score often have social and communication problems due to the discrepancies in “understanding” the world around them (often the problems are based in failures to discriminate various contingences that impact on social behavior, or deficiencies in behavior repertoires to respond appropriately).  Also, since it is clear that you have been given some information on an underlying genetic cause for some of the child’s problems, I suggest you follow up on this.  You may want to contact a clinic at a pediatric teaching hospital that specializes in seeing children with genetically-based disorders (you didn’t mention an age, but since he or she has already had had IQ assessments , he or she must be over three-years-old, but still school aged).  Finally, although I am suggesting some additional assessments, the main emphasis should be taking the information you receive and working with your educational professional to find the best placement for the child.  This usually means supports that are geared to the child’s needs, and include behavior management as well as traditional educational input.