Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello,
I am a bit confused and maybe surprised this morning.
Yesterday my husband went to see the psychologist whose team assessed our so last month. She said our son is very likely to have Asperger. We thought that you cannot have it if you have had speech troubles growing up but she explained that his scores were high on the cognitive test and could have been higher if it was not for his sensory difficulties which we need to look into. Now this puzzles me.
She has invited us to watch Tony Atwood's videos and while he was describing the different Asperger's profiles in boys my husband and I could not but agree that he ticks all the box for the so called "Italian driver profile" ( funny things is that we are actually Italians!!).
Anyone can relate to this?
Thanks a million
Have they referred your son for a proper assessment?
Asperger's used to be autism without clinically significant speech or cognitive delay. Even if your son's speech development was a bit late, it may not have been of clinical significance. Do you speak Italian at home? Is your son now bilingual?
Sometimes children growing up bilingual take a bit longer to talk, but then catch up fast in both languages. Basically their brains are processing two linguistic systems simultaneously and trying to sort out when to choose one or the other. Ultimately, they enjoy cognitive benefits for having done this, though.
These days the diagnoses would just be autism. Some people with autism have problems with verbal language, or even no verbal language; some in fact have early or advanced language skills and take to learning new languages easily. Their communication problems are generally to do with pragmatics (tone, intonation and non-verbal communication, like gestures and facial expression) and the social and creative use of language.
It sounds like your psychology team are pretty switched on to pick up on this, but a proper assessment now could help your son find his strengths and turn those into life advantages and learn strategies to manage the difficulties as he grows up.
Complimenti per la sua scoperta.
Ciao Dawn,
Yes, he has been referred to be assessed by the NHS more than a year ago after he saw his paediatrician. When he was younger he would speak Italian with me all the time unless we were at playgroups or with English friends. I am not sure he could understand any English at the time. His language development has been unusual, rigid and sometimes I felt he could not follow me. He needed some speech therapy when he started YR to put him on track. He would not talk to other children or teachers at nursery although he would do all that was being asked him to do (apart from writing, he hates that, colour in pictures as he is not fond of coloring pencils). He is bilingual and his Italian is better than his English. We only speak Italian at home. It would be confusing to do otherwise since English is not our first language. He is very articulate now, especially when talking about things he finds interesting and you would not believe he struggled when he was younger.
He has been recently diagnosed with ASD by a reputable team who specialises in ASD privately because he was growing more and more uncomfortable in school and was becoming extremely anxious at the idea of attending it. His NHS paediatrician knows this team. He is still very young to be diagnosed with Asperger's but the psychologist explained that given his scores on the cognitive test it is very likely he has Asperger's. Thanks to the cognitive test we are able to understand more about his strengths and weaknesses. We will make sure he is well supported. :)
My speech development was unusual too, although early and I got a degree in French. I'm teaching myself Italian now.
Basically, Asperger's is ASD. I'm glad they are working from a point of view that your son is very bright with some real strengths to capitalise on. With respect to the writing, dyslexia often goes with ASD. It might be worth assessing for that. I'm dyslexic too. I was a tad slow learning to read and my spelling is awful, but once I could read, I read a lot, studied hard and did well.
And as for the social side. No, I didn't bother to talk to or play with other children, either. Basically, I never really played. Albeit, I was co-operative with teachers. I made friends when the other kids became adults.
With the right teaching and the right companions, it sounds like your son could do very well indeed.
That's fantastic you are teaching yourself Italian. You will find that French and Italian are very similar grammatically. They have the same root, Latin. I used to do translations from Latin to Italian back in school. It was part of the curriculum. But that's another story. Give me a shout if you need help!
Yes, it is clear to me that Asperger's is ASD but I find it useful to know where my son is although it doesn't make any difference.
At the moment we have been advised to see an OT because it was felt he has some sensory difficulties (visual and auditory) that could impair him at school for example. It is a long journey and we are aware of it. It felt lonely at the beginning but not anymore :)