The Diagnosis- Peter Dean

  About 2 months ago I took Nicholas in for testing to determine if he had autism. Nick had been ested in different ways for the last 4 years but no one would give us a definite answer on what was going on with Nick. He had been diagnosed with ADHD about a year earlier, but Dawn and I knew there was more going on than just ADHD. We really wanted answers but up until then we had very little success in getting any.
  
  I was allowed to sit in the room while this "testing" was done. The testing was not like any testing he had done before. The doctor asked him a few questions at first. Those questions were things like "Where did you live before here?" and "What do you remember about living in Maine?" She then had him look at a map of the United States and asked him some questions about that. She tried to get him to play with action figures with her but Nick has never liked that type of play so he refused. This all went on for about an hour and which point she told him he could play with the game he had wanted to since the start and immediately talked to me about the results. She said he definitely had some autistic tendencies but it was had to detect because he is strong in other areas so it is masked from most standard testing.  She said her official diagnosis was PDD-NOS. I was relieved.

  Now it is important to note how different this was from the first time I had Nicholas tested. That was back in Maine when he was 4. I drove him to see Dr. Fink on the recommendation of his head start program. They said he was having trouble socializing and communicating with the other kids there and thought we should just make sure everything was on track. I knew Nick was a bit different, but I was sure everything was within normal ranges for a kid his age.I knew he was advanced as far as spelling and word recognition. Most 3 year olds don't do either, but Nick had. And it was a bit odd that when we went to the mall play area he would only run around with the other kids for a minute or 2 and then would sit next to an adult and copy their mannerisms. And there were other things but again I figured it was just differences in development. So Dr. Fink talked to Nick and did some different testing and asked a lot of questions about our family history. We then set up an appointment for me to come back in the next week. When Ireturned the next week, he told me he thought Nick might has something called Asperger's syndrome and asked me of I knew what that was. I had no clue and was a bit concerned. He then said "well it is a type of autism that is also sometimes called little professors syndrome". I think he said more but all I heard was "a type of autism" and nothing after that. My heart sank. I could feel my eyes filling with tears. I knew what autism was and I knew it meant a terrible future for Nick. It wasn't until much later that I learned about the different types and severities of autism. I only knew of the most severe cases and that is what I thought autism was. I thought my son would never be able to function in a normal setting and never have true connections to other people. I was devastated.

  So when this new doctor told me she was sure Nick had a form of autism and I was relieved, I thought back to Dr. Fink's office. I thought of how I felt then compared to now. In some ways it is good it took so long to get the official diagnosis. It gave me a chance to understand more about autism, asperger's, and my son's behavior. And now we have a name to apply to his difficulties. We can tell his teachers and schools what to expect and how to help him. We can give them a name to reference and relate to when they see Nick and his very different behavior from most other kids his age. It has already helped us in dealing with his school. I'm still not 100% sure the diagnosis is correct (as I have said, we think he may have asperger's- a more specific form of autism) but it is a relief to have a concrete "official" diagnosis for him.

So what's the title mean? - Peter Dean

  It took me awhile to come up with a title for this blog, but the title certainly fits our son. Nick has always had a thing for numbers. I can remember when we were living in Chincoteague Virginia, I called Dawn at work to see if she could hear what I thought I was hearing. Nicholas was at the stage when kids start to say single words that usually only their parents can understand. He was sitting in our living room watching Dora (the only show that ever caught his attention) and playing with some small toys. I heard him babbling to himself and sat down next to him. Slowly I realized he was repeating a few "words" over and over again. It sounded like "Wa, To, Fee, Do, Fie," and after the third time I thought for sure he was counting to five as Dora had just done on the show. So I called Dawn and had her listen but she could not really hear it at first. I tried saying the numbers with him and sure enough he looked up at me and smiled in recognition as he said his sounds with me. Dawn was astonished as she listened over the phone.

  Little did we know this would just be the first of many times Nick would amaze us with his ability with numbers. He was doing multiplication when he was 6. He loves to count things like the number of steps it takes to get places, like from room to room or to cross a road. He also loves number conversions. He tells me every time I watch football that the field is 100 yards long, which is 300 feet. Or that we have been out of the house for 2 hours, which is 120 minutes.

 People who are diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome will have a focus of interest. One thing that they will always come back to and try to learn as much about as possible. We now believe that numbers and conversions is Nick's focus.  Almost every conversation with Nick will involve numbers of some sort. In many cases it is easy to slip them into a conversation without the other person even realizing it. When he talks about his video games he can talk about the points he scored or the level he got to. When he talks about sports he will tell me how many feet the yards are or how much time the play took off the clock or how many hits it took the golfer to get the ball in the hole. When he tells me about school he can tell me who the fastest kid during PE was and who was 2nd fastest and third.  At night he can tell me that it is still 13 minutes until bedtime and count them down as it gets closer.

For Nick, it is always about numbers.

Who is Nick and why am I writing this? - Peter Dean

This blog is about Nicholas. He is my middle child and is currently 8 years old. He was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder—Not Otherwise Specified) about 3 months ago. The diagnosis falls within the autism spectrum. He was also diagnosed with ADHD almost 2 years ago. Nick started getting help for his problems long before we received either diagnosis, and we are still not convinced the current diagnosis is completely correct. (We think he may actually have Asperger's syndrome)  I started this blog to relate the terrible struggles and the amazing things my wife and I have learned about Nick,  the education system, the mental health system, and ourselves in dealing with Nicholas and his unique way of relating. My wife (Dawn) will also be posting entries to this blog so we will try to make note of which one of us wrote each entry.