10. LOL! My son has no problem at all with his siblings and us. As I have five children, I have very little time for him (he is #4). He will read most of the day, and then prepare his own meals, he eats six meals a day. He plays with his younger brother, the piano, and sleeps. He does a bit of computer (an hour or so). When he argues in this house, he loses most of the time, the older teenagers will not let him have the last say. So he has learnt not to track an argument! Maybe because of that, he has brought his argumentative skills to the classroom?!
I think that it is possible for PGness to be mistaken for AS, and I think that the reverse is true too, some kids with AS are hard to diagnose because they use their PGness to cover it up. I would go so far as to tell you that I believe in my heart of hearts that ADHD + PG and AS + PG might be their own catagories that have very little to do with 'garden variety' AS or ADHD. At some point it becomes so hard to tell what is what that it just doesn't even matter: Unless they are trying to ship your kid off to a school to work on the AS without accomidating the gifteness. That could lead to serious trouble if the AS is a misdiagnosis. Think back to your description of your family life - is your son showing some flexibility in navigating the social waters at home, or does he just avoid the teens and call all the shots for the younger sib?
http://www.sengifted.org/articles_counseling/Amend_MisdiagnosisOfAspergersDisorder.shtmlI wouldn't begin to try and figure out your particular situation, but a phone call to Dr. Ed Amend might be a good idea. But I can say that AS doesn't turn 'on and off' - although it can be less noticible at home where everyone sort of accepts each other's quirks. In a way that is the sort of classroom experience you are looking for, a more accepting place.
For example, if the teacher doesn't like that number of trips to the bathroom, what other places could the teacher invent for the child to make trips too?
My DH's somewhat mythologized version of DS's gradeskip goes like this: DS was so bored that he was very distracting to the children who sat next to him. The teacher kept moving him from child to child as the children and their parents complained that sitting next to DS was too distracting. Finally there were no more kids for DS to sit next to in her classroom, so the teacher moved him up a grade.
This BTW isn't literally true, but it captures the spirit of the thing nicely!
Love and More lOve,
Grinity
