Hi everyone, this might end up long-winded, but I'm curious to hear other's opinions on this subject. I'm wondering if others feel there is a propensity to diagnose children with a variety of disabilities today, whether an actual disability really exists or not.
Some background: When our son hadn't started talking by 2 years old, my wife started to become concerned and we had him evaluated by Early Intervention. Not only did they qualified him for services based on the lack of speech, but to our surprise, they also qualified him for pretty much every other service they offer. I was present for the evaluation for Occupational/Physical therapy, and what struck me was that, while the evaluation was in 2 parts - a question/answer with me, and a direct evaluation of our son, they only seemed to base the evaluation on the direct evaluation. So despite my assurances that he had no difficulties in certain areas, fine motor skills, for example, he was marked as having fine motor skill disabilities because he didn't demonstrate those abilities within the 20 or so minutes with the evaluator. This was clearly the theme of the evaluation - anything he didn't specifically demonstrate he was marked for, regardless of whether or not I indicated that he performed that task without difficulty in day to day life at home. We received OT sessions for several months before discontinuing it, because it was obviously not serving any purpose for our son.
We did, and have continued to receive, speech therapy, but our son still doesn't really talk. He's almost 3 now, and while he has maybe 15 to 20 words he knows, he only uses them sporadically. He does "speak" incessantly in his own language though. The main issue seems to be one of motivation, at times he'll start counting numbers, saying the letters, or just saying certain words on his own, but as soon as we try to encourage him to continue, he stops immediately or after a short period of time. And when we try to get him to continue, he gets a grin on his face and starts laughing, as if he finds it funny that he's refusing to do what we obviously want him to do. He's extremely strong willed, and many things are a battle of wits - it's not that he can't do something, it's that he chooses not to. He'll come to us with a container, for example, wanting it opened. When we try to get him to say "open" he'll squeal and the look on his face seem to be saying "you know exactly what I want you to do, so just do it".
So it's been about a year of speech therapy, and the success has honestly been a bit ambiguous. He does use more words now than he did a year ago, but it's difficult to specifically credit that with the therapy and not just the passage of time. And I don't say that to disparage the service, the woman who works with our son is great and clearly very dedicated.
However, on the last session, the therapist suggested to my wife and I that we might want to consider having our son evaluated for Autism Spectrum Disorder. She stated that, while she wasn't specifically qualified to diagnose ASD, in her experience, our son would fall under it's description. We've read up on ASD, read about all the symptoms, and neither my wife and I think our son truly has an autism-related disorder/disability:
He has none of the signs of classic autism - no motor skill problems, fine or otherwise. He's not obsessive about toys, or the way he plays or with schedules. He has no social issues, in fact, he's exceedingly social and outgoing with anyone, familiar or complete strangers. He'll literally run up to almost every stranger on the street and will tell them his life story (in his own language) for as long as they'll listen. He interacts with the other kids in his playschool and they seem to like him - always running over to him when I drop him off, and saying "by" when I pick him up. He makes direct eye contact with everyone. The <I>only</I> issue is that he chooses not to talk very much and is resistant to learning, and I stress that it's an issue of him choosing not to as opposed to not being able to. We can get him to learn and use new words, but it's like pulling teeth.
So, now they want to test him for ASD, and based on our experience with EI, my wife and I are entirely certain that they would indeed diagnose him positively, despite our firm belief that he has nothing of the sort. It just strikes me/us that there's a propensity to diagnose kids with disabilities today. Personally, my feelings are that there's a rather broad range in the time in which kids learn to talk, and while our son is certainly later than average, he's still within a reasonable range, say 2 to 4 years old, and has no developmental disabilities or disorders at all. I'm fine with the therapy he has been receiving, but I'm exceedingly skeptical and not inclined to have him diagnosed for Autism because of the medications that will surly be a part of that treatment. I just think that, looking back to my childhood, and that of my siblings, I have no doubt that if we were exactly the same children today, we'd certainly be diagnosed with ADHD and probably Autism Spectrum Disorder (I was rather unsocial as a kid).
So, if you actually made it through all that, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Do I sound like a parent in denial, just not wanting to admit that my son has a disability, or am I reasonable in my concern that he not be diagnosed, treated and potentially medicated for conditions which I firmly believe he does not suffer from.
Thanks in advance!!!
Some background: When our son hadn't started talking by 2 years old, my wife started to become concerned and we had him evaluated by Early Intervention. Not only did they qualified him for services based on the lack of speech, but to our surprise, they also qualified him for pretty much every other service they offer. I was present for the evaluation for Occupational/Physical therapy, and what struck me was that, while the evaluation was in 2 parts - a question/answer with me, and a direct evaluation of our son, they only seemed to base the evaluation on the direct evaluation. So despite my assurances that he had no difficulties in certain areas, fine motor skills, for example, he was marked as having fine motor skill disabilities because he didn't demonstrate those abilities within the 20 or so minutes with the evaluator. This was clearly the theme of the evaluation - anything he didn't specifically demonstrate he was marked for, regardless of whether or not I indicated that he performed that task without difficulty in day to day life at home. We received OT sessions for several months before discontinuing it, because it was obviously not serving any purpose for our son.
We did, and have continued to receive, speech therapy, but our son still doesn't really talk. He's almost 3 now, and while he has maybe 15 to 20 words he knows, he only uses them sporadically. He does "speak" incessantly in his own language though. The main issue seems to be one of motivation, at times he'll start counting numbers, saying the letters, or just saying certain words on his own, but as soon as we try to encourage him to continue, he stops immediately or after a short period of time. And when we try to get him to continue, he gets a grin on his face and starts laughing, as if he finds it funny that he's refusing to do what we obviously want him to do. He's extremely strong willed, and many things are a battle of wits - it's not that he can't do something, it's that he chooses not to. He'll come to us with a container, for example, wanting it opened. When we try to get him to say "open" he'll squeal and the look on his face seem to be saying "you know exactly what I want you to do, so just do it".
So it's been about a year of speech therapy, and the success has honestly been a bit ambiguous. He does use more words now than he did a year ago, but it's difficult to specifically credit that with the therapy and not just the passage of time. And I don't say that to disparage the service, the woman who works with our son is great and clearly very dedicated.
However, on the last session, the therapist suggested to my wife and I that we might want to consider having our son evaluated for Autism Spectrum Disorder. She stated that, while she wasn't specifically qualified to diagnose ASD, in her experience, our son would fall under it's description. We've read up on ASD, read about all the symptoms, and neither my wife and I think our son truly has an autism-related disorder/disability:
He has none of the signs of classic autism - no motor skill problems, fine or otherwise. He's not obsessive about toys, or the way he plays or with schedules. He has no social issues, in fact, he's exceedingly social and outgoing with anyone, familiar or complete strangers. He'll literally run up to almost every stranger on the street and will tell them his life story (in his own language) for as long as they'll listen. He interacts with the other kids in his playschool and they seem to like him - always running over to him when I drop him off, and saying "by" when I pick him up. He makes direct eye contact with everyone. The <I>only</I> issue is that he chooses not to talk very much and is resistant to learning, and I stress that it's an issue of him choosing not to as opposed to not being able to. We can get him to learn and use new words, but it's like pulling teeth.
So, now they want to test him for ASD, and based on our experience with EI, my wife and I are entirely certain that they would indeed diagnose him positively, despite our firm belief that he has nothing of the sort. It just strikes me/us that there's a propensity to diagnose kids with disabilities today. Personally, my feelings are that there's a rather broad range in the time in which kids learn to talk, and while our son is certainly later than average, he's still within a reasonable range, say 2 to 4 years old, and has no developmental disabilities or disorders at all. I'm fine with the therapy he has been receiving, but I'm exceedingly skeptical and not inclined to have him diagnosed for Autism because of the medications that will surly be a part of that treatment. I just think that, looking back to my childhood, and that of my siblings, I have no doubt that if we were exactly the same children today, we'd certainly be diagnosed with ADHD and probably Autism Spectrum Disorder (I was rather unsocial as a kid).
So, if you actually made it through all that, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Do I sound like a parent in denial, just not wanting to admit that my son has a disability, or am I reasonable in my concern that he not be diagnosed, treated and potentially medicated for conditions which I firmly believe he does not suffer from.
Thanks in advance!!!
