Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment gifted vs. aspergers

Nodding head in agreement. Same situation here.

Hey Artana, I know that must have been tough, I try to keep an open mind when folks suggest these various things to me, and I know that ds is not without issues. Good point about being in a new situation and how that can make a diagnosis make more sense.

I have read that good assessors looking to distinguish between 1 and 2e will work with a child on assessing giftedness when they are well rested, relaxed, etc. and work on assessing for any learning or other issues when a child is more tired, less comfortable. These 'tricky' gifted kids can really compensate sometimes for a lot of things until they are a bit out of their element, from what I have heard.

DS5.5 has been ready for K for basically ever (as he says). Today was the school meet n greet. He was fine until he saw the crowd. He was shy, but still ok, when he found out he didn't know anyone in his class. But when trying to get him through the cafeteria to get all the papers signed and checks written for lunches, ASP, etc, he had a meltdown - all because he would not be at the same school as his sister, and he would miss her. She is 3.5 and still at daycare/preschool.

But *I* knew why he was really having the meltdown. He was anxious, nervous and overwhelmed by the amount of people in the building at one time. He wasn't prepared for that, and like his mother, can get overwhelmed in large crowds when he's not comfortable or familiar with the environment.

And I can see how he would be labeled as AS quicker than gifted with OE. When he was 3, we feared the ADHD diagnosis because he was bored and acting out in school. It's amazing how much he changed when put in the right environment!

So stick to your guns. You know your child better than anyone. And while sometimes an outside opinion/observation can be helpful, I've come to realize that with a gifted child, "professionals" refuse to focus on what is right and try to place the GT child in a diagnosis that is oh so wrong!

Yes, I am so familiar with this kind of scenario with my son who has AS diagnosis. Children with AS often have impairments of comprehension including misinterpretations of literal/implied meanings. My son has problem understanding idioms and he rarely uses them in his daily life. He also lacks inference skills so, even though he excels in most academic subjects, his reading comprehension is his major weakness.
I think AS is more than excessive obsession and social awkwardness. My son's been in behavioral/ social skills therapy for 5 years and his therapy sessions are mainly for developing "Theory of mind".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind

His therapist says significant deficit/delay of Theory of Mind is usually seen in children with AS and autism while gifted children with some issues usually have normal-developing Theory of Mind skills.

Sorry you are going through this. I can relate as well as many of the others here. When DS was 3 he attended a preschool for a couple hours a week for a few months. One of his teachers there told us that we should have him tested because they thought he had "something on the spectrum" and that they had never seen a child that smart that did not have some sort of diagnosis. That was pretty alarming to hear. I have a background in that area and did not at all feel he had aspergers but realized it may come up again and decided to have him see a developmental pediatrician who was very clear that DS did not have Aspergers. I think that people just aren't familiar with quirky gifted children. I think the ones that are more HG and PG stand out more, and at a younger age. My parents have told me that people have come to them (not to me of course) and said to them that there is just something different about my DS, something not quite right that they can't put their finger on. Of course half of them don't know that he is a PG kid and have only watched how he interacts with peers his age and haven't talked with him at all. I often think things like "if your IQ was twice everyone elses around you, don't you think you would interact a little differently and think differently?" Of course I would never say that, but it's true isn't it? It just bothers me that some people can't understand that most behaviors and things he does have to do with him being gifted. Like when we play games sometimes it will take him a while inbetween turns because he is doing math equations or thinking about building something in his head. I could go on and on about different examples like that. Of when he acts up in his class at church because they are teaching at such a lower level and he is bored out of his mind. I definitely know that Aspergers does exist and I think it should be recognized and people should get services when the diagnosis is truly warranted.

Sorry I went on a bit, but it is frustrating and I feel your pain and frustration.

Some people, including my sister, thought my son had to have Asperger's because he used a higher level of vocabulary than much older kids, he flapped his arms when he was younger because he had that excess energy that he had to get rid of, has always been very interested in computers and technology, read his first easy reader book without being taught at 2 1/2, and talked like a little professor as a preschooler. When he was 4 1/2 an older teenager in his acting class told me he had to be "autistic or something" to be able to memorize his lines so fast.

The neuropsychologist says he does not have it and said in her report that he was very sociable with both her and the student who was helping with the testing. The developmental pediatrician said he didn't have it. My sister thinks they are wrong. She read an article in Time magazine a few years ago and she knows more about it than they do.

He always felt like he had more in common with gifted kids several years older than he was. He has only one friend his age and he is in GT in public school. All of his other friends are several years older. He told me recently that he only has about 1% in common with these friends now. It doesn't help that they are all in public school and very busy with things like band and he is homeschooled. My son would love to find other kids his age with similar interests but he hasn't found any yet except for a few online.

Yes to this. We had aspergers suggested to us by a person at a Mensa AG of all places b/c dd was completely overwhelmed by the group in the kids trek area. Dd does not have aspergers. She is highly gifted and has SPD, though. However, at nearly 11, you would never even know that she has sensory issues anymore though. She, too, has been evaluated by a number of professionals (psych, OT, etc.)

The big difference I see btwn her and a friend of hers who does have aspergers is much the same as that which I quoted above. Her friend, while also gifted, has some significant weaknesses in language arts, has an unusual intonation to speech patterns (dd says it sounds like he has a foreign accent), and the friend has some ecolalia issues -- will repeat things back to you. The social structure of conversations is really impaired. I might say, "dd is at a friend's right now. I'll have her call you back." and get a response of "dd is at a friend's right now. I realize that. I'll have her call you back. I realize that."