dyspraxia and aspergers or just dyspraxia?

[Frelle]

I was wondering if anyone has some good resources on a comparison between Dyspraxia and autism spectrum disorders? My daughter has the diagnoses of developmental dyspraxia, auditory processing disorder, sensory processing disorder, and sensory modulation dysfunction. A few other idiosyncracies are making me think she ought to be tested for an ASD. There is not a lot out there on dyspraxia, and there is even less on girls with Aspergers.

Having done a bunch of reading recently on Aspergers, and applying what I have learned to my conversations with my husband and daughter, my relationships with them are going much better. I don't necessarily "need" to know if she has Aspergers, because I am already using strategies in the books to improve our communcation.

Thanks for any links or wisdom! I can post more about what I am thinking, but this was my initial question.

[Momto2Ns]

Autistic spectrum disorders aren't "tested" for. They are a set of behaviors that are observed. You can take her to a developmental psych. or behavioral psych and let them observe for an official diagnosis, but I think you've already answered your own question. If you observe the behaviors that match a DSM-IV description and you have educated yourself on working with aspie kids and that is working with her... you have all you need :001_smile:

Girls are much harder to diagnose and go undiagnosed more often because the present differently from boys. I have a boy and when he was young and we were doing more diagnosis stuff and helping a lot of other families, I could have helped you figure out exactly which your daughter's symptoms might be caused by. However, the truth is, internet diagnosis is guesswork. If you really want a diagnosis, you should go get one. Otherwise, keep doing exactly what you are doing. Keep reading and educating yourself and looking for more ways to make her learning style work for you instead of against you.

[Frelle]

Thanks for your perspective :) I appreciate your answering. I haven't yet figured out, other than needing help with drawing inference and doing less verbal answering of flash cards, what else I might need to do education wise on the spectrum for her.

[Momto2Ns]

I'm just going to take a guess, but a lot of aspies are visual spacial learners.

In this thread Handmaiden gives a couple of links on recognizing visual spacial learners:
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87509&highlight=vsl

If you think your daughter is a visual spacial learner, there is a great thread on the K-8 board right now. It starts off just with visually appealing things, then a couple of people jump in and explain the difference in what a visual spacial learner needs and what curriculum choices work for them.
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91436

I'm just taking a guess because of the language processing issues, that your daughter may be a very visual learner. I don't know that she is visual spacial, but it is common in Aspies. Let me know if that is off base and tell us more about her learning style and I'm sure there are plenty of people here who can give you good suggestions on how to work with her. How old is she?

[mom2jjka]

sorry - I posted in the wrong place