Dual Diagnosis: Autism and Down Syndrome
When our son was 3 or 4 years old we started suspecting that there was more to his overall disability picture than Down Syndrome alone. He displayed autisitc tendencies like not wanting to experience physical touch, being obsessed with “sameness” and displaying sterotypical repetitive movements. Since both my wife and I have previous experience with working with disabled individuals we could see it but it was difficult to express our concerns to medical and education professionals. Even harder was trying to explain it to friends and family. You sometimes feel like that people think you are grasping for other reasons to explain the lack of developmental milestones. We are fortunate to have great pediatricians, access to world class medical facilities and a top rated private school for children with disabilities. Over time we were able to get our sons dual diagnosis added into his official records and IEP. This has helped us alot in obtaining supports that we not have otherwise been able to qualify for. I recently came across a well written article by Glenn Vatter on this very subject that was written in 1998. Click Here to read the entire article. Here is the synopsis:
Synopsis
As many as ten percent of persons with Down syndrome may also suffer from autism. Exact data is difficult to obtain. Many cases go undiagnosed, or are diagnosed at a later age. Many diagnosticians are unawares that the two conditions may exist or are reluctant to apply the second diagnosis. Autism diagnosis is much more complicated than Down syndrome; there is no blood test, genetic marker, facial features, or other characteristics that apply to all autistic persons. The diagnosis is subjective, depending on meeting observations of certain behaviors. Diagnosis and treatment of autism is much more critical than for Down syndrome. Without early detection and intervention the life of a person with autism may be much more limited than that of a person with Down syndrome and often results in autistic children living in a residential school rather than at home because of inability of the parents and the school system to cope with the child’s behaviors.
