The advice on this website is that if there are no problems and no services that need to be accessed, a diagnosis is not needed. I beg to differ on that…. I like all the other content on your website. At 12 my son was tested for adhd (was borderline) and further recommendation for an ASD evaluation was made. At the time he was finding school stressful but still getting good grades in a very competitive environnement. He was able to access some services at school (extra time for tests, separate locale). With the ASD diagnosis we could have pushed for less homework. He didn’t want to do more evaluations but I think I should have insisted. His pediatrician said it wasn’t necessary unless we wanted to but I think this was the wrong advice too. He masks really well so can certainly appear neurotypical. My son really started struggling in grade 10 but we thought maybe because of Covid. We still had him evaluated for Aspergers after grade 10. I think it was too late. We tried to push through grade 11 . The school wanted him to be open about his diagnosis and discuss it during IEP meetings. This wasn’t something he was ready to do. I think getting the diagnosis at a crisis point in his life made things worse. Granted we don’t know how he would have reacted with an earlier diagnosis but at least he would have had more accommodations and we could have understood him better . He wasn’t able to finish grade 11 or do much in the past year. From what I see school pushed him to the max, he wasn’t open about his struggles, we didn’t understand because no ASD diagnosis. Now he’s in defense mode or burnout and we feel like terrible parents. Extremely guilty that we didn’t assess him earlier and push the school for accommodations. He’s a bright kid who could now have been graduating from high school in a less stressful environment with more accommodations. I would like to spare someone our painful experience.

Posted by Eve at 2023-05-04 12:47:18 UTC