I wrote a fairly lengthy response to this yesterday but I guess I forgot to click on submit. Anyhow, I have experience as a mental health professional in working with children with Aspergers, and have diagnosed it in the past. However I did not have training in children that were HG and didn't know anything about that until my DS4 was about 2 years old. So I would imagine there are some professionals that don't see all the traits and quirks of HG children and could misdiagnose. There are times where it is hard to distinguish...but there are clear criteria that need to be met in order to have Aspergers. It's not just a lack of some social skills or poor eye contact. I just wanted to say that because even though your child may have traits it doesn't mean they have it. And they could also meet the criteria for mild AS there is a big range. I would suggest that you look for someone that does have experience in working with gifted children as well in order to distinguish, and also someone that is knowledgable about Aspergers. When my DS was three his pre-k teacher said that she felt he had something on the autism spectrum because she had never seen a child that bright that didn't have some sort of disorder. No joke. I was extremely knowledgable about AS and didn't feel that he had it at all...however I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have him evaluated and may answer questions for other teachers in the future. We had him evaluated by a developmental pediatrician who specializes in Aspergers, and he was very sure that DS did not fit the criteria. But that being said my DS does have poor eye contact at times, he used to spin as a toddler for fun, he is sound sensitive, and he does not really pretend play barely at all. He is very literal about things. However he has good social skills and enjoys asking about and finding out about others and their interests. He has a good sense of humor, he does not perseverate on things, he does not go on and on about subjects and seems to be able to tell when others aren't interested, he does pick up on social cues from others. Anyhow, just wanted to share our experience and hope that you get the answers you are looking for.
