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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Amber Update

I know a few of you have been as anxious as I about what the Neuropsychologist had to say about Amber's diagnosis. Today my big question was answered-but not really.

Here is the summary-it's pretty long-but really I did condense as much as I could while still explaining everything.

So he started off by saying that he had the most difficult time diagnosing her because she is a unique case. She has a few symptoms that fall under the Autism spectrum-PDD-NOS, which she would be considered very high funtioning-at the same time she demonstrates abilities that Autistic children do not have. She shows some ADHD combined type symptoms as well-but not enough to place her under that category.
The clear answer for sure is that for her language and speech delay Amber has
Mixed Expressive/ Receptive Language Disorder and Phonological Disorder.

Temporarily her diagnosis is PDD-NOS /ADHD-NOS under the Autism Spectrum-primarily because she isn't strongly anything at the moment and hopefully in the next year or two-another more precise diagnosis will be found. PDD-NOS is Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified.

The good news is that whatever she is...she has a high probability of Resolving it.
Her language once developed to the same level of her peers will ofcourse help her in all areas across the board and with this-as it's the language part of concepts that Amber scored low on. The Dr. told me that most likely by age 10-12 Amber will pretty much be a normal functioning child with very few developmental differences compared to others her age. So this was a good thing to hear-obviously any parent would want to hear news like this. Her brain receives information correctly-it's more how she responses to use that information that is her problem right now.

So from here-we continue with Speech Therapy both in and out of school and we start meeting with an occupational therapist to help Amber with her sensory processing.

The funny thing I learned today was that they had Amber tested on her Right/Left hand skill level.....so we all think she's left handed because she writes with her left..but to my surprise, Amber is highly funtioning with both on a high average and scored higher with her right? CRAZY..so pretty much she's ambidextrous, which I kind of figured-but I didn't know she was stronger with her right-weird. And her Visual Motor skills are actually really advanced for her age.

5 comments:

Mikaela said...

I hope you feel a huge sense of relief! What a wonderful thing to be able to discover more to help you understand Amber better. I'm happy you have some answers.

And, I just have to say, she and McKay are definitely cut from the same cloth! :)

Robert, SLP said...

Kudos to you for getting her tested, and for following up with appropriate treatment. She's a lucky girl.

I have a daughter with a sensory processing disorder, and she also had us scratching our heads and wondering about ADHD and the autism spectrum. Occupational therapy has done wonders for her.

Keep up the good work, and best of luck to you and your daughter!

Carrie said...

I'm so glad you got the answers you needed, and that you know what to do and that it should eventually be resolved. It's great news!

Ginger said...

I never imagine I would even be able to process anything you just wrote about until I got one of my own. She is still only 2 so there could still be additional info but she had a severe food and sensory aversion and threw up everything she ate and quit eating all together. We had her tested for everything, sleep study's, an MRI, and finally we got involved with a program called KIDS ON THE MOVE, and it has changed our lives! Maddy is getting healhier she is finally growing and her hair is coming back in. She she's a SP and an OT working with her and we LOVE them and all that they have done for us. I really hope you can get to the bottom of it all and find the tools to best help her out individially. I have really struggled with finding people who can be friends without judging of trying to "fix" my child for her small development delys. I know your situation is different than mine but I get how much work and worry it can be to live a normal life. You have to do everything just a little big different. Anyway, sorry that has become a ramble... Congrats and I only hope it gets even better for you!

The Gines Chronicles said...

So happy you finally have some answers, Arin. I hope this takes a load off your shoulders! :)