Therapist: "You are probably very well read and educated regarding autism?"
Me: "No. No one has ever told me the children are autistic."
Therapist: Looking totally stunned ... "So, what is their diagnosis then?"
Me: (Trying not to sound like I'm on repeat. We've had this conversation verbatim every week). "No one has given me a clear cut diagnosis. I only know that they have developmental delays."
Therapist: "Oh, so they have Pervasive Developmental Disorder".
Me: "I don't know that."
***
#1. The first week I shared how I had taken them to Children's to have testing done so that we could know what we were working with and what angle to approach their needs with and I was told they didn't need the testing that they were "Mentally Retarded and what more did I need to know?"
To that, he went on to explain that Developmental delays was not necessarily Mental Retardation and that I really needed to have the testing done.
#2. The next week he went on to explain that Pervasive Developmental Disorder was on the SPECTRUM of ASD and that they were somewhere on that spectrum.
I told in they specifically tested James for Autism when he was younger and said he was definitely not autistic but that he was missing the Q arm of the 7th chromosome but that no one knows what that means including the Drs who tested him.
#3. This week another re-run. He again came to the conclusion that they have a Pervasive Developmental Disorder and I just said, "well, they called it global delays." And he went on to talk about Autism again.
I'm not against accepting they could be on the spectrum somewhere... just please tell me where we are getting these labels if we have not done the testing. How can this guy know for sure anything when I have been searching for answers for three years and have none. He's barely conversed with them for more than a greeting. He has not so much as observed their behavior.
I'm trying to look up Pervasive Developmental Disorder and it is an absolute meaningless title and supposedly after the age of 6 must be changed to a more specific diagnosis.
Whatever! None of these words help me to know how to HELP THEM. Isn't that the point of all this?
*******************
A little Buddy turns 2 tomorrow.
Happy Birthday little guy!
One year ago we met him for the first time.
The day after his 1st birthday.
He was so little.
What a year it has been!
4 comments:
UGH!!! I feel your pain! The "psychologist" never said word 1 to Little Man and then told us that he had "no significant problems". SMH. And, our tax dollars pay for these "diagnoses". Just keep swimming!
Ditch the therapist.
Diagnosis' don't mean crap. Seriously. Jackson has five and they don't mean a thing. He has been given meds for three of them and I'm not sure the meds even help because the diagnosis don't mean a thing at this point BECAUSE when you throw RAD in the mix nothing else means anything.
Just my humble opinion.
I'm of the understanding that therapists can't diagnose. So if it were me, I'd really sweetly say in what (hopefully) sounds like a genuinely confused voice "I thought diagnosing was outside the scope of a behavioral therapist's work?"
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