My son who is almost 5 is taking the ADOS test next week. They think he might actually just be ADHD but i actually think he is both and I'm worried he might get the wrong diagnosis.... So what I'm wondering is how you separate someone who's is just ADHD from autism? What are the big signs to differentiate?
Kids can and do often have both. And that is totally what happened with my son. Diagnosed with ADHD young. Was pretty on par socially until around 9 or so when you could tell his peers were progressing in a different way. Diagnosed on the spectrum at 10. But like you - I knew (but didn't want to know if that makes sense) that something else was going on too. Go see someone (we used Children's Hospital) that specializes in evaluating and diagnosing autism. Missed out on some key developmental years. Some of the stuff I am learning now that might help if he gets treatment is speech therapy with a focus on understanding social queues and go to socialthinking.com. Best of luck to you.
I think that is the best test to take. It is a 3 part test. You cannot fake autism. There is a speech/social language part that the child will have difficulties with if they are on the spectrum. My daughter took the test twice within 3 months. Once from the school and another from a team of doctors. The score was roughly the same. My daughter is VERY high functioning and finally in the 3rd grade was given this test and there was no denying she was on the spectrum. She struggled with the language and social skills part of the test.
It is common to have more than one diagnosis to go along with autism. My daughter has a list of diagnosis: autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia, OCD tendencies, anxiety, emotion regulation disorder, ODD and I am sure I left 1 or 2 out. I wished I had known about that test sooner for earlier intervention for my daughter.
I constantly struggle with my daughter. it is like she argues with everything I say because she only sees things from her perspective and I find myself repeating the same thing over and over. It is difficult for her to see anothers point of view or difference of opinion or how what she said makes them feel.
OK that helps....I'm glad to know its a good test. I just want him to get the right diagnosis. He does have speech/social struggles he's been in speech therapy for a little while now. He's a friendly guy sometimes though and he does seek out others and enjoy others but his social problems are mostly getting into others bubbles and adults/other kids not understanding what he's talking about and having to have things go his way.