Was my brother misdiagnosed with Asperger's?

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honeyberry
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03 Sep 2012, 12:06 pm

My brother is around 16 and since he was 9 he was diagnosed with a mild case of Asperger's syndrome,however ever since the diagnosis many including physchotherapists,physchologists and teachers have remarked that they don't think he has it.Going so far as to call for a revaluation.Before the diagnosis his behaviour was slightly amiss,ie-he was badly behaved at school however having said that his childhood was pretty traumatic which probably affected him.Although this was never told to the person making the diagnosis which we regret not doing,in addition to that his kindergarten teachers often asked my parents if his homelife was ok,to which they would reply yes despite that not being the case.
Around the time of the diagnosis,he had some obsessions namely ones that isolated him however we were recently told that this was probably a coping mechanism to deal with homelife and not asperger's per se.
When we received the diagnosis we were put in touch with an educational phychologist who categorically stated he did not have asperger's and demanded a revaluation ,when put to the person who assessed him she dismissed it as rubbish.
From what we know of aspergers,he doesn;t seem to display any traits or if he does they are extremely minor:
He understands and responds to social cues
He can make good eye contact
Smalltalk is not a problem for him
He has no sensory issues
He can socialise with people his age but wishes not to.Btw-we have seen him socialise.
He is slightly clumsy but he is also overweight
He has some obsessional traits
He can understand abstract concepts
He has no resistance to change nor does he have any routines
He is very sharp witted,ie- he can answer questions coherently immediately
He is intelligent-yet he is consistent,he has a wide field of interests.
He did have slightly delayed speech

In regards to socialising ,when he moved school it was late in the year so most pupils had already formed groups and also he had come from a private school to a low achieving comprehensive ,so there was class barrier.So therefore to fit in he deliberately disrupted the class in order to gain favour from his peers whilst logically knowing he was denigrating himself for their entertainment.When the physciatrist asks for a school reference ,do you think she will give him time to explain his actions?

Thanks in advance!



Callista
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03 Sep 2012, 1:24 pm

Being diagnosed with "mild Asperger's" at the age of nine could mean that he's on the edges of the autism spectrum. He has some autistic traits; maybe at age nine, they caused impairment, and now they no longer do.

It's possible that he was barely diagnosable at nine and has since lost the diagnosis. He probably still has autistic traits, and may even have more in common with autistics than with NTs, but if there's no impairment, there's no reason to keep the diagnosis. It's probably still a good thing that he knows that he was diagnosed autistic at one point, though--it does tell you something about yourself to know that.


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