Tiki

What previous discussions? Am I supposed to be automagically up to date on every conversation ever had on this forum?

And the fact that Clod has an autistic kid and has researched autism as it related to her family doesn't, actually, have a lot of bearing on whether she's research autism as it relates to MY family. If we are dealing with two different points on the spectrum, why would she have read up on my end of the spectrum? I certainly haven't read up on hers.

My personal experience is four years of being very close (daily caregiver, frequent overnights & weekends) with one now-ten-year-old high-functioning autistic boy who was not diagnosed for several years because the "experts" in the school refused to believe that a child could be autistic and yet be as functional as J is, one older sister with recently-diagnosed Aspergers, and one six-year-old daughter with a PDD which has not yet been pinned down. Of course, while caring for J, and during his diagnosis, I have done a lot of research on high-functioning autism.

You can scream that I'm being condescending for bringing up my research and my personal opinion, or that I should just shut up because Clod knows more because one of her kids is autistic, but frankly, none of that makes any sense.

I know what I've researched, and the lines between HFA and Asperger's are not very clearly defined, and there is additional complication that very intelligent children, like J, function well enough that sometimes they are not recognized by educators as having a problem, even though once in the hands of specialists they are easily diagnosed.

Clod was trying to tell me that because the language development specialist at my daughter's school said that she was within averages for linguistic development, therefore she is by definition not autistic. She also said that something seemed wrong, and referred us to a neurologist. Both the pediatrician and the neurologists say she definitely has a pervasive developmental delay despite testing within average. It will take more testing to figure out what form, exactly, the PDD is in.

I clearly am not doing a very good job of explaining this, but some of the links I posted did a better job. Some children evade diagnosis because their extreme intelligence causes them to appear not to have a delay, when in fact they do.

There is also something distinctly odd about her father, who is an extraordinarily brilliant programmer, a former award-winning competetive jazz pianist, and a true musical savant who can play several instruments, and hear a song once and then play it perfectly... however, his ability to relate to other people is minimal, he has very little empathy, and his "life skills" kind of make me fear for his ability to make it on his own. So who knows. Maybe it's some inheritable thing.

It seems like the only thing we are arguing here is whether some people with autism have in the past evaded diagnosis. I have posted my reading and my experiences which explain why I am sure they have. Clodfobble disagrees, but instead of posting an actual argument why, I'm getting "she knows better than you, so shut up".

How does that help anything, or anyone?