Expert: James Michael Roan - 2/5/2008

Question
My son (30 months) has been assessed by our local "Birth to Three" program as having speech and social delays.  They were concerned about his attention span and minimal eye contact.  His eye contact with his father and I has always been fine - but it's minimal with new people.  He started speech therapy a few weeks ago and is showing improvement in eye contact and attention span already.  The speech therapist also noticed that my son can focus much better after he is physically active (swung around, hugged, etc) so he is recommending an OT evaluation to see if that can offer additional help.  We recently did the MCHAT and my son passed everything except the "Shows interest in other children" question.  He started a preschool program 5 months ago and is very shy with the other kids.  He'll play next to them and doesn't mind being with them -- but he doesn't often look them in the eye or try to interact with them.  He LOVES the teachers and will interact with them just fine (he was really shy with the teachers for the first month). He has an interventionist teacher now going with him to school to help him there.  He is joining the group activities at preschool much more (circle time, storytime, art projects)than he did when school began five months ago -- but the teachers still have to bring him over to join the group sometimes. He's very bright -- knows his alphabet, colors, shapes, counts to 15 and is a delightful and happy kid.  Is it possible that he is just shy and that he'll get more comfortable with children over time?  He's due for an evaluation by the school district this summer (when he turns three) so I'm a little apprehensive about what they will say.  I really appreciate your time and consideration!


Answer
Hi Barbara;

Yes, it can be shyness, however, since the district is evaluating him have them assess for Asperger's syndrome, which is a high functioning form of autism. I use several instruments: Gilliam Asperger's Disorder Scale (GADS); The Australian Scale For Asperger's Syndrome:(http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aspergerscaleAttwood.html); an observation of the child interacting with peers; a pragmatic language assessment by the SLP; the BASC-II social/emotional assessment; The Behavior Rating of Executive Functioning-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P); The Sensory Profile; and, the Scales of Independent Behavior-Revised (adaptive behavior).

Remember, you are by law, part of the team and can strongly recommend what they assess. If they do a poor job of it you can request an Independent Evaluation by an independent agency or psychologist at your school district's expense.

Kind regards,
James