I've been offline for a few days attending an Autism Conference. I learned a lot of great information, but had to share a funny quip regarding diagnosis. We saw a local doctor who was well known for working with and diagnosing those with autism. What we did not know is that she is notoriously known for giving a British diagnosis for autism that will not qualify you for services in the US. I believe she does this, in part, because if your child has the label of autism in their medical file, your insurance can deny services (such as speech and occupational therapy) based on your diagnosis.
As an aside, laws are slowly changing to stop the insurance discrimination against those with autism. There are now 32 states with mandatory coverage for people with autism.
The downside is that you can't get any special education supports with that diagnosis in the school setting. We had to lobby our school and jump through extra hoops to get him educationally verified as autistic. So his medical diagnosis is PDD-NOS. This generally stands for Pervasive Developmental Delays--Not Otherwise Specified. One of our speakers renamed it:
Physician Didn't Diagnose--Neurologically Odd Son
That about sums it all up.
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