Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment New, confused.... gifted or Asperger's, testing?

Please forgive my newbie questions.

I am homeschooling my two children, DD8 and DS5. They're both bright and ahead, but not off-the-charts academically gifted.

My son has always had quirks. We shrugged them off for years, said things like "If he didn't [make eye contact, display emotional empathy, etc], we'd totally think he was on the spectrum."

As he's getting older, his "quirks" are separating him more and more from his peers. I'm trying to decide whether to have him testing for ASD/Asperger's or Gifted, to have an idea of how to approach things with him and possibly to have access to more resources (our state provides financial help if they have an ASD diagnosis).

But I'm kind of lost. My husband and I both went through gifted testing in school (and were pulled out for the program), but I don't know how things work these days. Do I have to choose one and have him formally "tested"? Can I see someone and have them evaluate him for both?

Or maybe this is not outside the realm of "normalcy"? My daughter is the typical high-achieving good girl, so maybe it's just compared to her that I'm seeing his difficulties as abnormal?

His quirks:

[*] Obsessions/perseverances (As a toddler and preschooler, this was space, to the point where he would give friends tours around Kennedy Space Center at the age of 3 and 4. Parents in the homeschool co-op not-so-jokingly suggested he teach a space class. Now it's Minecraft, and he seemingly CAN'T talk about anything else. Seriously 90%+ of the sentences he utters in a day are about Minecraft.)
[*] Can't play with peers because he's too rigid (Trying to play x-wing/tie fighter with another boy, and my son was in tears because the boy wanted his tie fighter to have shields, but my son has read in books that they aren't equipped with shields.)
[*] Fixation on justice/following rules (He dislikes magicians because he sees them as "lying" to the audience.)
[*] This has gotten better in the last 6 months, but he can get "stuck" at the end of a word or sentence and repeat it over and over ("I built this Lego star fighter-fighter-fighter-fighter.......")
[*] Difficulty handling time stress (countdowns, timers)
[*] Difficulty transitioning away when he's involved in something
[*] Some noise sensitivity
[*] Some anxiety
[*] Lots of wiggling/movement (can't even sit down through dinner), but not to an AD/HD extent
[*] Well below average in writing
[*] But he's friendly and engaged with older kids and adults, learns quickly, reads well above grade level, make connections, and asks interesting questions

Thank you for any insight you can offer!

I don't where you are but usually what you do is find a qualified person to test them and pay the bill. I am in NZ and that is what i did.

If you are in the US go to Hoagies gifted website for lists of recommended psychologists. Since you are concerned about ASD etc someone experienced in 2e would be best. Also check with your insurer as from other people's post while testing for gifted may not be covered testing for ASD/ADHD and gifted together may be is you get a referral. In that case you may be able to affored a full work up with a neuro.

You also have a right to request that the local education authority (public school district) evaluate your child based on your list of concerns, at no additional cost to you (beyond what you're already paying in taxes!). In his case, you've listed academic and developmental concerns, not only gifted concerns, so the school district would be obligated to evaluate him in his areas of suspected disability. To do that, you would write a letter to the director of special education/special services/pupil personnel services (usually it's one of these titles) in the public school district in which you reside, stating your concerns (written language skills, social-emotional development, sensory sensitivity, rigidity, in combination with highly divergent academic skill levels), and request a comprehensive special education evaluation, including cognitive ability, academic achievement, autism measures, and maybe occupational therapy and emotional assessment.

This avenue is highly affordable, but also fairly variable, in the quality of evaluation you may obtain. I'm in the field myself, and know many competent assessment professionals who work for public schools. But I also know people I wouldn't send my own child to (both in schools and in private or hospital clinics). Some families have also had success with asking the schools to do the basic cognitive and achievement portion of the eval, and then filling in the remainder of it with a private neuropsych. I would suggest looking for personal referrals/references, and conducting a thorough interview of the person prior to committing to an evaluation. I would echo the importance of someone experienced with 2e.

Non-responsive answer: if he likes both space/NASA stuff and minecraft you should get him a copy of kerbal space program.

More substantively: gifted and asd are not mutually exclusive. It is possible for him to be both. As a non-expert, his difficulties sound more in line with gifted type personality traits than with asd. I mean, he's right, tie fighters don't have shields, so the other kid was playing wrong.

That said, if you have concerns it is worth it to get an evaluation from a psychologist who knows gifted traits. With my DS5, we had him tested because of very similar issues.

My DS7 has similar issues, and was found to be on the spectrum last year. You are right to be concerned. We went with a psychologist at a local autism center, and all it cost us was a few copays for visits. He got an IEP with no problem, too.

Just to round out the responses - my DS8 also has similar issues and we originally had him assessed because his pre-school teacher was adamant he was Asperger's. It turns out he is not. He is profoundly gifted (now a Davidson Young Scholar) and has other challenges we need to support, though. So the next best step for you is probably assessment - which is the same at the outset whether it's for gifted or Asperger's or ADHD or whatever. Highly recommend a neuropsychologist experienced with gifted kids - and you'll find good recommendations here if you are comfortable telling us your general location. And FYI - we found that ages 3.5-6.5 were toughest with peers. Very tough indeed, but getting better steadily these days.

Welcome!
Sue

Re "he only talks about ..." I remember once asking a Gymboree sales clerk why they made little boys clothes with anything OTHER THAN firetrucks on them. I was a little panic stricken at the time because DS would only willingly wear two of his shirts because - firetrucks. And i was beat down. She looked at me like I was deranged, which I kinda was at the time. Well - and still am.

Oh, and if you have a May Institute/National Autism Center location near you, that would be a good place to look as well:

http://www.mayinstitute.org/

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful responses! I'm in central Florida. I'm very, very new here, but I'll look to see if there are regional boards.