Expert: James Michael Roan - 8/1/2008

Question
Hi James,
I have a 7-year-old daughter diagnosed with Aspergers. I read that Aspergers is High functioning Autism. However, she has the mental age of 4-5 year old, with social age of 5 year and has IQ of a dull/normal child. She is having severe learning difficulties in school. She is lagging behind in comprehension, language and expression. She flaps her hand all the time. She has an intense desire to make friends and most often is bullied and ridiculed. She is difficult to handle and most often displays poor understanding in all spheres. Was she misdiagnosed? Can she learn? How do I help her? Can her flapping be helped? I am confused with no serious help available.

Answer
Hi Anju;

Please be specific about exactly what areas, such as cognitive, social, language and academics where she is behind, providing as much detail as you are able. With your permission, can you give me the breakdown of her IQ scores, such a PIQ, VIQ, and FIQ? Does she have any noticeable left-side body weakness? Does she get disoriented/lost in familiar surroundings?

If you live in the U.S., your school's occupational therapist can help provide you with replacement behaviors for the hand flapping.

Certainly she can learn once we are able to understand where her strengths and weaknesses are.

You can send this information to my private email at: roanpsych@gmail.com

Kind regards,
James