Asperger's Syndrome -- Seeking an Evaluation Service

I most certainly CAN highly recommend someone. She is a dear friend of mine from childhood, and she is fantastic. Her name is Dr. Elizabeth Cutner, and she does evaluate for Asperger's. Her email is ____@____.com and her number is ###-###-####. Her office is in Rockville, not too far for you...and certainly worth the trip. I made the trip to see her from Loudoun County, VA (out near Dulles Airport) with my son a couple years ago to have her administer a traditional IQ test (for G/T placement). She is great with kids and highly professional. Please let her know that I referred you...I already mentioned to her that I was referring you. Then she'll make the connection. My name is K. Broussard. Good luck, and I'm so happy to help. P.S. I just saw the other recommendations of visiting Children's Hospital and Kennedy Krieger...at least give Dr. Cutner a call...she's a specialist in diagnosing, and chances are she has contacts at both those institutions and would eventually refer you there if needed for ongoing care/treatment.

Center for Autism and Related Disorders is by far, in my opinion and MANY others the best there is! I was a therapist there for a few years, in Arizona, but I looked it up and there is one that is one combined with the Kennedy Krieger Institute. It is in Baltimore, not sure how far that is from you. But I definitely recommend C.A.R.D. There standards for therapists and supervisors are very high. There clinical programs are great. The family, child, all team therapists (if she were to start therapy) and supervisor meets every two weeks for updates. It is made fun for the child and WORKS. I had some very low-functioning kiddos and by the time I had left the program, the difference was incredible. They do home-visits, school shadowing, and some offices offer different settings as well. We had to take many tests and pass with an 80% before we were considered to be on staff. Ah this is making me miss it! ( I looked it up and its around 30 miles...) http://www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_cp.jsp?pid=1394

I don't have anyone to recommend since I'm not in that area. I do have a six-year old girl with Asperger's though! It can be tricky and time-consuming to diagnose, so even if you can do it through your school district, I recommend getting a private assessment done!

Good luck!
C.
www.littlebitquirky.blogspot.com

I recommend making an appointment with a developmental pediatrician who then will be a case manager, making referrals and gathering information from various specialties. Diagnosing Aspergers is not a simple one professional person thing.

So far my grandson has been seen for evaluation by his own pediatrician, a developmental pediatrician, a speech therapist, and a neurological and movement specialist. His mother started this process when he was nearly 3 and he's now 7. She started with his pediatrician and the school district. It took several years to discover that he needed more evaluation because the help he was getting wasn't enough. We wish we'd started with the developmental pediatrician because this specialist is an expert in recognizing many issues. We are finding that some issues, such as sensory processing disorder issues, would have been obvious to person trained in that area several years ago.

The current private sector evaluators are using the evaluation reports from the school district. The school district evaluation and treatment is free, paid for by our taxes. :) I suggest that you use both resources. I think that a child will benefit from both and overall the cost can be less.

My grandson's evaluations in the private sector are covered by insurance with co-pays. He will get private speech and languagae therapy as well as continue with speech therapy at the school. More is better.

My grandson does have apraxia of speech, which means he's unable to accurately form the sounds that make words, but his current evaluation shows that he also has a language deficit. Language involves tone and word choice. My grandson has one sided conversations with his imaginary friends. Is that what you're describing? That issue hasn't been addressed with my grandson, yet, but it will be.

My nephew has Asperger's and my sister had him evaluated at Kennedy Krieger in Baltimore. He had been diagnosed as ADD or ADHD, but my sister took the initiative to have him evaluated after reading about the symptoms of Asperger's. She was very pleased with Kennedy Krieger.

Not your area, but call the nearest children's hospital, what you need is a Developmental Pediatrician. They will have one or more on staff, and they can direct you to that office. It may take sometime to get in. You can also make an appointment with a Board Certified Child Psychiatrist for treatment and request that you have a referal to a Neuropsycholgist for evaluation. You will need to supplement this with a speech and langaguge and Occupational therapy evaluation. Doing things this way will be faster, but you will have to trust that you know what ancellary professionals you need that you may be missing, like a developmental optomistris, geneticist, ENT, Audiologist, etc. The Developmental Pediatrician will call in every kind of specialty needed to fully assess your daughter, and give you a comprehensive evaluation report and treatment plan. Child psychiatrists are usually the best way to go for implementation and case management of the plan, but if you go that route from the begininng, you may want to get the Developmental evaluation eventially.

Public schools won't have sepcialistis in apserger on staff but, they do have school phsycholgist who can do the educational portion of a neuropsychological evaluation to determine the educational need for services in a public school setting to make sure that children with disablities have a basic floor of opportunity to access general education. If she is doing fine in the private setting, and you can aford all of her therapy, there is no reason to move her. The reality is, even if you were in a public school setting, all developmental disablilities stradle the medical-educational boundary, and the school is only required to make your child functional in the classroom, so the lions share of the treatment program, and therapies, are the families responsiblity, if they wish to maximize their child's potential.

That is not to say that school services, if well advocated for, are not worth having, but they have limitations that are not widley understood. Many children with asperger do not qualify for IDEA services at all, becasue of their high function, if they are functional in the school setting without services, and many are.

Good luck! Another source for you to find an evaluator and therapists in your area is www.wrightslaw.com in the yellow pages for your state.

M.

I live in Richmond which is about 3 hours south of you. We have been sent to the Children's Hospital in Fredericksburg as the Developmental Peds here in Richmond are not that good. Have you talked with your regular Pediatrician? That's usually how I go about getting these appointments. Hope this helps.

I don't know about your state specifically, but here in California, even if your child attends private school, you can have them evaluated by the local public school. The principal at your daughter's school should be able to help get the ball rolling. If not, contact the local superintendent of public schools, and they can direct you toward the correct resources. My daughters attended a small private school last year, and a little boy in one of the classes had some special needs. He was evaluated by the public school system, and then once or twice a week, a school bus came to the private school, picked him up, and away he went for his special classes at the public school (it was some kind of occupational therapy, I believe). Anyhow, the resources should be available at no cost to you, no matter where your child goes to school. Best of luck!

You need a developmental pediatrician. A great one in Bethesda, MD is Dr. Charles (Chuck) Conlon at ###-###-####. He can do a thorough testing (2 visits--the first with just the parents and the second with the child). He is fantastic, patient, and well respected in the medical community.

The Kingsbury Center in Washinton, DC is also an excellent resource: www.kingsbury.org. You would want to connect with Diagnostic and Psychological Services department. Best wishes on your journey...

Go to Children's Hospital in DC. They are first-rate, they are a teaching hospital, and they participate with most insurance providers. You can make an appointment online at http://www.childrensnational.org/

Tell them you need a neuropsychiatric evaluation of your child for possible asperger's. They'll send you a whole ton of forms to fill out, including some your child's teacher will need to fill out, and the evaluation itself will take a whole day. (Bring a book). But it is thorough. At the end you can talk to them about what kind of doctor and treatment your child needs, and they'll give you a list of providers in your area. I've done this with both my children and can attest to how good these folks are. The really good private providers in this area do not participate with insurance plans for the most part, and the evaluation process is crucial--so you'd end up paying $2K and up for a good evaluation. Children's does it for an insurance co-payment. I've also heard good things about Kennedy Kreiger in Baltimore, though I've never been there. Good luck.

Autism is covered under IDEA, grab a copy of it and read it. Look into the Kennedy Krieger Institute, I don't know if CARD is there, I know it's in Philly. Get to a Neurologist and have them do an evaluation. I know school in DE aren't good for educating a child with Autism, I am dealing with that now. Have the school do an evual and if you don't agree you have options for what you want to do. Also get in touch with your local Autism support group, they will have good advice for you becasue they are local.

Good luck!