autism Helps

Our teenage daughter has just recently been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. The problem is that we have been taking her to Psychologists and Psychiatrists since she was 5 and was incorrectly diagnosed as Bi-Polar & OCD. Because she had a primary diagnosis of Bi-Polar, she was wisked away to a co-operative school from 1st through 3rd grade. We were told our district did not have the staff or facilities for BD children and they participated in co-operative with several other school districts. She was placed with kids who were truly Bi-Polar and had major violent behavioral problems (throwing things, hitting other students and teachers, sexual, physical abuse, recent divorce / single parent child out of control problems. They had a metal detector at the entrance and security guards on hand during the school day. The co-operative schools were filled with kids more juvenile delinquent than disabled. The kids were stealing things out of her book bag, and fighting with her on the bus. She was learning nasty words, and bad habits at an accelerated rate. During her pre 4th grade IEP, we requested that she be moved to her home school district special education program because of her behavior improvement (from a medication dosage change). Her home district seemed wonderful and at every IEP goals were set and charted along with her progress and she was advanced, filling the requirements for each grade. In November of 2006 (8th grade) a specialist came to her school. After seeing her briefly, the social worker was told our daughter showed major signs of Autism due to body movement and gate and wanted to test her. I agreed to the testing and started to look into Autism on line. During the summer of 2007 our Psychologist and Psychiatrist requested we contact the school for the results of the test. I was told the district declined the testing, as it would not give her any additional resources. She was re-diagnosed by the Psychologist and Psychiatrist with AS primary with signs of Bi-Polar and OCD. When she entered the 9th grade we were immediately contacted. The school told they could not teach her because she was so far behind, and her disability was too extensive for them. She was placed at a Therapeutic Day School for Autistic Children in October 2007, where she was tested, and found to have a 5-6th grade education. Her new Psychiatrist told us that if Autism had been diagnosed at an earlier age, she could have been leading a near normal life. Why didn’t any of the Special Education teachers and Directors of Special Education, with there Master’s Degree’s and credentials notice Autism. Not to mention the professionals who took our money month after month, year after year, and didn’t notice our child was Autistic. I went to the Internet searched web MD for Autism and matched up the nearly all of the Asperger Syndrome traits within minutes.

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