Sorry for the late post on this, but just realized I never posted this about Josiah.
Written 9/16/15
So, those of you who know our family know the struggles we have had with our eldest, Josiah. Josiah is 10 years old. He is sweet, silly, quirky and unique. We have always known there was something different about him. When he was 3-4, we had one psychologist tell us he had Aspergers (high functioning autism). When we had him assessed, we were told that he was not on the spectrum but that he was close to it and we should have him assessed again in the future. I think from this point on, I thought of him as Aspergers. I figured he was just too young to get the diagnosis but would eventually. Due to insurance issues and the fact that he was doing relatively well in school, we decided not to have him tested again unless it became a bigger issue, especially at school. At the end of 4th grade, we noticed some problems with school work and home work and knew that it was time to get him re-assessed, especially with middle school lurking right around the corner. It took me about 2 months to figure out how the insurance worked and where we could get him tested since the place who did his original testing is out of network. (Gotta love the healthcare system!) I did find a wonderful lady who has done a great job with us since we contacted her.
So, for about 6 years now I have lived under the assumption that Josiah has Aspergers. I have gone through periods of great research so that I could better understand him and help him move forward in life. I thought I will be ahead of the game when the actual diagnosis came. My husband has always told me that he did not think he had it. I just dismissed this because he does not spend as much time with him as I do. My biggest fear was that after this assessment, she would tell us we were in the same place as before - he was not on the spectrum and was just a weird kid and there was nothing we could do about it.
Results day was a few days ago. As the psychologist started talking and explaining the tests and findings, I could not really tell where it was going. I could see it was going away from autism spectrum disorder and then the dreaded word... ADHD. No, no way. Josiah does not have that. I started to panic a little. But I have to say, our psychologist explained things so well and things started making so much sense. Josiah has trouble with the hyperactivity and impulse control, not so much the attention deficit. So what about all the social awkwardness and problems. Josiah landed in the gray area between an autism spectrum disorder and what is considered normal. The formal diagnosis is Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder. (Who doesn't have this at some point, right?? LOL) Basically, he knows what he should be doing but for some reason cannot always do it.
She told us a story about when Josiah spent the day with her testing. He spent a good 6-7 hours with her on the day of testing. She was struggling with his diagnosis throughout the day. She said her clarity actually came after the testing was done. They were waiting for me to pick him up. It was then he realized that he didn't know anything about her. He started asking her questions - do you have kids? where do you live? does it take you long to get to work?, etc. She said it was then that she realized he could not be on the spectrum because someone on the spectrum would not do this on his own. Guys, the thought of this gets me so choked up. I know it does not seem like a big deal. But I did not know he had the capacity for this. I was shocked. It still is taking me some time to digest this fact.
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