So, as I have said in previous posts, my son was diagnosed with autism when he was 2 1/2 and then officially labelled as gifted this year in 1st grade at age 6. I saw other people posting about OE's and I didn't know what those were so I ignored them...:) Anyway, now that I looked up OE, those characteristics fit my son to a T! In fact, a lot of those characteristics are what we have been calling autism. I read the book "misdiagnosis dual diagnosis" and it doesn't talk a lot about autism, more about ADHD. But, I think my son has been mislabeled. I have always adamantly defended his diagnosis of autism, but I didn't know about the overexcitabilities and giftedness!!! Have I been wrong this whole time and he is "just" gifted? Is that really a possibility after 5 years? DS's label of high functioning autism has already been "downgraded" to Asperger's then PDD-NOS by a psychiatrist (we took him in due to behavior problems in school). The main ASD deficits of communication problems and social skills problems have never been the huge issue that they are for other ASD kids...and can be explained by the OE's. Argh! The accommodations he receives at school for autism help him, so I wouldn't officially change anything with his IEP, but I am just wondering myself! Has anyone else had this kind of situation???? If not, that's ok, thanks for listening anyway! Nan
