I think some people in the schools see Aspergers everywhere they look. And it is often misdiagnosed which makes it worse because if other kids in the school have a diagnoses and your child seems similar, the people in the school will think your child should have the same diagnosis. We had teachers fill out checklists from last year, DS was in a normal mainstream class,and they rated him a lot more impaired (not necessarily for autism, just in general) than the teacher this year who teaches kids who are all highly gifted and therefore doesn't see DS as standing out in any way. A lot of the other kids seem similar to him. So what the other teachers saw as an abnormality was most likely DS responding the way a 2e kid would to not having appropriate supports and material. There's so much bias from all involved when it comes to this that it becomes very difficult. Bottom line is that my son just doesn't fit some of the diagnostic criteria or fit any sort of pattern that you would normally see with autism. Lots of kids have social skills issues, but to many people social skills issues = autism and they don't see other possibilities. I think this actually does do a disservice to kids if the diagnosis or assumptions are wrong, for instance my son was put in a social skills group where half of what they talked about was "weird behavior" and what that means on a cognitive level, when in DS's case any weird behavior that he exhibited came mostly from executive functioning issues. He has a lot of features that you would commonly see in kids who have damage to their cerebellum (if your child displays any motor issues as well google "cerebellar syndrome"). That's completely different than autism! Anyway, I have no idea about neuropsychs in your area but just wanted to reply to the other thoughts in your post. Hopefully it helps. I think you are on the right track being very careful who you choose.
