Originally Posted by blackcat=But other things about him scream out ASD, like his poor eye contact, awkward conversations w/ peers, etc. Part of what makes him come across as awkward, though, is his unusual voice prosody, but he was just diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia which would explain it.[/quote
[quote=blackcat]
I'm pretty sure the teachers in the school all think he has Aspergers or something similar, just because of the more superficial characteristics like his voice, eye contact, how he says he has no friends, etc. I wish we could just rule it out once and for all rather than people wondering about it if that's not actually the issue.

I wouldn't assume the teachers are wondering if he has Aspergers - but I wouldn't be surprised if the teachers don't understand what's up with him. As you probably already are aware of, there are quite a few overlaps in symptoms/behaviors between autism and dyspraxia. If *you're* wondering if he has Aspergers, then I'd suggest having him evaluated and dig into it - to answer your questions. If you're worried that his teachers think he's got something going on (Aspergers or whatever), the thing that's most likely needed there is education - give them information on what dyspraxia is and how it impacts your ds.

While poor eye contact and difficulty with communication with peers *might* be associated with ASD, they might also result from communication challenges associated with dyspraxia. If you've got questions yourself re which is it, I'd probably start back with the professionals who diagnosed dyspraxia and get a good understanding of why he has the dyspraxia diagnosis. Then if you're not convinced that dyspraxia explains his challenges, pursue an ASD evaluation.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - if he was diagnosed with verbal dyspraxia by an SLP rather than through a more global neuropsych type of eval, then a further eval may be useful. Dyspraxia can manifest in many different ways, and collections of symptoms/behaviors can vary tremendously among dyspraxic individuals.