possible aspergers???

[clairebear3737]

Please Help! I'm in the process of having my 6 year old tested for developemental disorders. He is clearly a very intelligent child his intrest have always been history and science related. However since he began preschool and now hes in first grade his teachers have constantly noted many problems. There has been confrence after confrence. He will not put his work on paper, hates doing work, his teachers have noted he often annoys other children, won't eat, seems lonely, has trouble making friends, and is sometimes a behavior problem. Along with selective hearing, and oftem seems confused. I've had his hearing checked his eyes checked. We've seen doctors of every form they've noted that he has tangenial thinking. I had him diagnosed with ADHD and placed on Adderall and its helped alot but he still has alot of trouble in school. He is horrible in math and handwriting and always failing these subjects and won't do board work. Everything from Aspergers to simple ADHD to possible sociopath has been suggested. Today I was reading the forms the teachers sent to the testing place and it said he often seems lonely which is heart breaking for me, I feel like hes slipping through the cracks. He had a very normal early childhood, i am a single mom but I still took him to museums parks movies anything to stimulate his mind. He became a brother at 4 years and this seems where the problems began. At home he often wants his brothers to leave him alone, he lies alot and is always manipulating to get his way. Hes not overly violent beyond normal fights between brothers. I just want to know how I can help him. Has anyone else out there expirienced anything like this. All feed back is welcome.

[Sally44]

Has he been assessed by a multi disciplinary team that has experience of diagnosing autistic spectrum disorders including Aspergers?
These are some other disorders to google to see if they are relevant that can be part of the spectrum, but can sometimes be a diagnosis in themselves:-
Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Semantic Pragmatic Speech Disorder
Auditory Processing Difficulties
Working Memory Problems
Dyslexia or Dyscalculia
Executive Function Disorder
Sensory Integration Disorder

For example, although your son appears to have age appropriate expressive speech, you say he sometimes seems confused.  Has a Speech Therapist assessed his receptive speech?  She would also need to assess his auditory memory skills, auditory processing, semantics and pragmatics, comprehension, inference etc.  If you cannot process auditory information fast enough you are not going to be able to follow speech or classroom instructions.  It will also impact on social interaction.
If you have sensory issues (or CAPD) and frequently appear deaf, you are going to be unaware of what is going on around you during those 'deaf' moments.  The sensory system may have other difficulties too that could make the classroom environment too overstimulating for the child resulting in them becoming hyper active.  This can also affect handwriting skills or poor handwriting can be down to motor co-ordination problems.  But again if you cannot easily put thought into action there are many things you are going to struggle with.
With CAPD, as well as appearing deaf, you might not be able to habituate to background noise and therefore find it impossible to concentrate in class or hear what is being said.
With Executive Function Disorder you may have difficulties planning, sequencing, organising your work.  You might have problems undestanding time.
I'm not sure about the cause of the lying and manipulating, but I know there are many parents posting about this particular problem.  I would have thought it would be useful to know if he is bad at lying ie. doesn't appear to know how to deceive, and is he doing this just to get what he wants, or is he good at lying effectively and uses it in social situations to cause an effect.  I am trying to find out if the aim of the lying is for him to get what he wants, or whether he uses it to cause problems between people.  Can you give an example of this.
Does he have any obsessions or special interests.

[mom@homenow]

You are doing the right thing getting him tested, and hopefully the experts can diagnose and get some  treatment and/or therapy started for him. I haven't experienced what you are going through with him but I can imagine how difficult it is. Obviously something is amiss and he is young and will likely respond to treatment. My advice is to be open to what they say but follow your gut feelings as his mother, you know him best and are his best advocate. My son had many difficulties and behavior issues when young and was labeled with OCD tendencies at 4 but he is not OCD and I didn't agree that he was. However I took him to the behavioral therapist as recommended, and after a few sessions he suggested an Occupational Therapist for evaluation of sensory issues. It turns out that was the problem and once in therapy my son's behavior changed/improved drastically. The mis-diagnosis led to a good diagnosis later- so I'm saying don't give up even if you think things aren't quite right, keep searching for answers until you feel he's getting the best help possible.

[mom@homenow]

You are doing the right thing getting him tested, and hopefully the experts can diagnose and get some  treatment and/or therapy started for him. I haven't experienced what you are going through with him but I can imagine how difficult it is. Obviously something is amiss and he is young and will likely respond to treatment. My advice is to be open to what they say but follow your gut feelings as his mother, you know him best and are his best advocate. My son had many difficulties and behavior issues when young and was labeled with OCD tendencies at 4 but he is not OCD and I didn't agree that he was. However I took him to the behavioral therapist as recommended, and after a few sessions he suggested an Occupational Therapist for evaluation of sensory issues. It turns out that was the problem and once in therapy my son's behavior changed/improved drastically. The mis-diagnosis led to a good diagnosis later- so I'm saying don't give up even if you think things aren't quite right, keep searching for answers until you feel he's getting the best help possible.

[mom@homenow]

You are doing the right thing getting him tested, and hopefully the experts can diagnose and get some  treatment and/or therapy started for him. I haven't experienced what you are going through with him but I can imagine how difficult it is. Obviously something is amiss and he is young and will likely respond to treatment. My advice is to be open to what they say but follow your gut feelings as his mother, you know him best and are his best advocate. My son had many difficulties and behavior issues when young and was labeled with OCD tendencies at 4 but he is not OCD and I didn't agree that he was. However I took him to the behavioral therapist as recommended, and after a few sessions he suggested an Occupational Therapist for evaluation of sensory issues. It turns out that was the problem and once in therapy my son's behavior changed/improved drastically. The mis-diagnosis led to a good diagnosis later- so I'm saying don't give up even if you think things aren't quite right, keep searching for answers until you feel he's getting the best help possible.

[mom@homenow]

You are doing the right thing getting him tested, and hopefully the experts can diagnose and get some  treatment and/or therapy started for him. I haven't experienced what you are going through with him but I can imagine how difficult it is. Obviously something is amiss and he is young and will likely respond to treatment. My advice is to be open to what they say but follow your gut feelings as his mother, you know him best and are his best advocate. My son had many difficulties and behavior issues when young and was labeled with OCD tendencies at 4 but he is not OCD and I didn't agree that he was. However I took him to the behavioral therapist as recommended, and after a few sessions he suggested an Occupational Therapist for evaluation of sensory issues. It turns out that was the problem and once in therapy my son's behavior changed/improved drastically. The mis-diagnosis led to a good diagnosis later- so I'm saying don't give up even if you think things aren't quite right, keep searching for answers until you feel he's getting the best help possible.