Expert: Norm Bishop - 1/29/2011

Question
My son is 11 yrs. old. I fought from the time he was 16 months old until he was 5 yrs. old, he was diagnosed with ADHD. He walked late, talked late, and is just now developing social skills. In the midst of that diagnosis, he was diagnosed with OCD, which is much better now. Things still didn't seem to get much better once he was medicated for the ADHD, he still struggled at school and home. His report cards would be empty because the teacher said she couldn't get enough out of him to give him a grade. when he was 8 yrs. old, he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. I quickly learned all about that. He seems to be developing well now, but he struggles in reading comprehension. He makes good grades otherwise, but his reading is suffering. He has been tested and they did find a problem with his comprehension. I was wondering, could this have anything to do with dyslexia?

Answer
It is possible that your son has some form of dyslexia, however, given that he has an Asperger's diagnosis it is more likely connected to the language part of the aspergers.  I would suspect that it is a delay in language processing...however, in a situation like this I am simply guessing.

I would suggest that you find a good reading specialist, either in the school district, or in private practice, who can conduct a good instructional reading assessment.  There are several things that could impact reading comprehension, but is usually connected to reading fluency or word attack skills.  It could be vocabulary, but given his asperger's diagnosis I doubt that.  

We aren't real certain as to what causes autism spectrum disorders, but in recent years we have discovered the the functioning within the brain is very different than that of someone without autism.  However, it is not uncommon for someone diagnosed with aspergers to have some other brain based dysfunctions as well.  

If your son receives special education services you can ask for the reading assessment as a part of his IEP.  It sounds like this could be a major part of his school struggles, thus, you would think they would want to isolate why, then attack the problem.  

When you described your son in the first two sentences I was thinking high functioning autism.  Too bad you didn't get the asperger's diagnosis earlier, as that would have helped greatly.  However, there is a lot of work they can do now and no disability field is being researched more than autism right now.  

Norm