Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Gifted with High Functioning Autism

We got an official diagnosis for DS2.9 yesterday. High Functioning Autism with very high intelligence. I am looking for experience and advice ... what did you do with your HFA kids when they were around this age? In terms of school, therapies, etc.?

We received a laundry list of recommendations (continue with all his current therapies, add on behavioral therapy), get ABA therapy if we can, Autism school ... I feel overwhelmed and knowing my child, don't see all that together working form him. He works well when NOT pushed too hard. If you push too hard, he shuts down and that's it. I am worried that a lot of this intense therapy will make him go from being a very happy child to being irritable and a big mess.

My biggest two issues ... the ABA and Autism class ... would you do it or not? (he has at this point about 600-700 words vocabulary ... not just memorized vocab but words he can say/understand/read most of them, is slowly finally starting to communicate verbally more, eye contact has improved a lot the last couple of months, overall more engaging as of right now)

yes, I want him socialized and be able to communicate ... but I also want him be educated to his full potential (even during the evaluation they did mention that once he tackles the communication and social part, we'd most likely be looking at advanced classes and such, as we expected)

My son (who is now 10 and a Davidson Young Scholar) was diagnosed with autism at that age also. I have other posts on here about our journey, so a lot of this may have already been said.

First of all, my son was nonverbal at the time of diagnosis (unlike your little guy who already has a huge vocabulary.) We did LOTS of ABA at that age. He attended ABA therapy for 4 to 6 hours at a time 3 days per week. He LOVED the therapy! As shocking as it may seem for a kid under the age of 3 to be able to "endure" 6 hours of therapy, he thrived. He became verbal very quickly which is when we realized how quick of a learner all around he was (is).

When he was a little over 3, a spot opened up in an autism school. Before that, he was in a special needs classroom which was a disaster. The autism school helped him grow by leaps and bounds. He then was ready to be mainstreamed and attended a regular preschool. (Looking back, we should have tried to get him into Kindergarten, but we didn't.) Once he was in public Kindergarten, he was re-evaluated and determined to be gifted. Then in 1st grade, he was tested again and we were told he was exceptionally gifted.

Since 2nd grade, he has attended a public school for the gifted with speech, OT, social skills provided through his IEP. It is not perfect, but ok for now. We do LOTS of enrichment at home on weekends and especially during the summer to make up for the lack of academic challenge.

Anyway, it sounds like your kid is similar, so I'd be happy to answer any questions here or privately.

Kate

My son (like Kate's, 10 and DYS) began getting social skills and behavioral training in 2nd grade, when he got a formal diagnosis of Asperger's from the school. I don't know what ABA is, so I don't know if it was that. He has done so well with all the things the school does, and an outside counselor on occasion, that we dropped his IEP this year because he doesn't appear to need it anymore. However, I think he would have done even better if he had started earlier. I "knew" he was autistic from before he was 2, but refused to label him and insisted he was just a smart kid and there was nothing "wrong" with him. His preschool director tried to suggest it when he was 4 and 5, and I still refused. It wasn't until 2nd grade when it really started getting out of hand, that I finally acknowledged it and the school went to work for him.

I would recommend starting the behavioral and social skills training as soon as he can possibly understand it and take advantage of it, which is probably now. It can make a world of difference.

Don't let them tie the advanced classes to the behavior, though -- that can and must be worked around. Being in classes that are below his abilities can easily contribute behavior problems of its own, regardless of any level of autism.

thank you for your stories!

the more I'm looking at this report I received, the more I'm finding it rather useless and not reflecting reality. While they acknowledged his intelligence as we were talking, none of it is really in the report. He's 33 months old now and these are his scores ...

Expressive language - 18 months level
Receptive language - 6-9 months
Non-verbal cognitive (I'd think this is where the intelligence would come into play, right?) - 28 months

... all this based on about 40-minute assessment. It's as if they only based the report on all the things he does not do and didn't put in anything he DOES do! His "problem" has always been that he refuses to do anything "age appropriate" and chooses to do things beyond his age.

I talked about all this with his developmental therapist and she too doesn't agree with the report. She said he's clearly gifted and certainly not delayed the way they had him marked. I honestly don't think they had much experience with gifted kids. So we'll just keep going with some therapies that we find useful and once he starts communicating better and gets a little older, we'll just have to do an actual assessment with someone who has experience with kids like our son.

Sorry to weigh in late here. A couple of thoughts.

Why was the assessment only 40 min.? When my DS10 was diagnosed, it was on the basis of 6-7 hours of testing. Did they do the ADOS? Did they do a Vineland to look at whether practical life skills are age-appropriate? IQ and achievement testing? What you got seems far too cursory.

HOWEVER: it is perfectly possible to be both extremely delayed and still gifted, at the same time. My DS didn't ask a question that was phrased as a question until he was 5-- serious pragmatic language delay in certain respects-- yet he was seeking and digesting huge amounts of information.

ABA therapy is incredibly useful, probably the best thing we did for DS10. It is highly tailored to the individual, so you don't have to worry about them trying to teach him skills he already has. But it was essential for remediating a lot of social interaction skills, language skills, motor skills issues-- all of which have helped DS fit better into a mainstream classroom. I don't know where we would be without it, but not thriving as we are now.

In short-- I'd take the therapies that are on offer as well as pursuing a more refined and thorough assessment.

DeeDee

Thanks, DeeDee! I was hoping you'd chime in. You've given me a lot more useful info in my various posts than any of the "specialists"!

The evaluation was ordered by Early Intervention and I guess the one hour (including them writing up a report) is a standard for this kind of thing. I'm guessing if it was through a pediatrician's referral it could be more in depth (and we might still go that route as well). The therapists / evaluators played with him a little and had me fill in a questionnaire while the developmental pediatrician observed from behind a mirror window.

they wrote in the report that he has several repetitive behaviors ... but that's not really what I said to them. ... they asked what he liked to do and I told them he enjoys letters, numbers and counting, puzzles, and such ... and in the report they ended up saying counting as one of the repetitive behaviors, which is not the case ... he enjoys counting as in counting objects, doing simple math addition because he understands what he's doing! Not because he's obsessed with numbers! In fact, he has pretty much ZERO obsessions like my older one had in this age and still does to some degree now. This child wouldn't care less if you change his routines. So, some of their observations are taken out of context.

He'll be out of EI in 2 months and after that we'll have to decide what to do next. Most likely I'll take him for the various therapies into the place where my older one goes. I believe one of their OTs has ABA experience so maybe she might be able to work with him and see what we need to do.

just to add ... they did the STAT (screening tool for autism in two-year-olds and the STAT questionaire for parents)

Hi Mk,

I wouldn't rely on a screening alone to make a diagnosis, or to rule one out. I would want a full evaluation (and that will include IQ and achievement testing as a matter of course). Is there a children's hospital in your area that has an autism center? That's where I would go, and I'd make the appointment for an evaluation ASAP (they often have a 6-month wait). You want someone who's seen the full gamut of how autism presents to make some important distinctions about your DS.

I would also not go to an OT for ABA therapy. You want a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) or a Ph.D. psychologist directing an ABA program. It is very possible for a therapist to screw this up if they don't know what they are doing. An OT typically has a bachelor's degree, and no training specific to this task.

It is very hard to distinguish the unusual behaviors and interests of a highly gifted kid from those of a gifted autistic kid. My DS's interests were not age-appropriate, either; this was both because he was gifted AND because he didn't have a sense of play or an understanding of how to engage with peers. Professorial behavior is not a social plus in kindergarten; a non-autistic kid may adapt much better to what peers want to play than an autistic kid. Again, I wouldn't expect EI to have a handle on this; I'd want someone who really understands autism and has seen some gifted kids with autism to help you figure this out.

HTH,
DeeDee