Misdiagnosis

This afternoon I got the results of Love Bug’s neuro-psych evaluation. The man who facilitated the various tests does not believe Love Bug is on the autism spectrum. He feels Love Bug has pretty intense ADHD, ODD (dammit), and Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Fun. He said he was really looking for some ASD signs, but feels like the social difficulties Love Bug has is because of his behavior, not because the wiring in his brain causes him difficulties. He found Love Bug to be quite smart, being in the 90^th percentile in more than a few areas. But, when Love Bug did not enjoy one of the testing methods, he performed low average or less-than average. This was not a surprise to me. On the one hand, I feel validated because I didn’t readily believe Love Bug was autistic. But, on the other hand, I feel like we are losing a community. There are Autism walks, and societies and special classes at school. There is nothing as active like that for ADHD, ODD or IED. Even more concerning, the only other special education class available to Love Bug would be the dreaded Emotional Support classroom. This would mean changing schools. And I fear this labeling him and limiting his potential. He is smart! I know this about him. And I want him to be challenged because I see his potential. He has a mind for mechanical things, he could be an engineer! But, if he doesn’t do well in school, he might not reach his potential. Today was just the preliminary report. I will receive the final report in a few weeks. I need to be able to speak to his wrap around service provider. We need to revisit the possible medications for Love Bug. I feel like we are starting all over again.

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