I went home and told Ken what the teacher had said. I then went online and began to do some research. The more I read, the more convinced I was that Jesse did, indeed, have Asperger's Syndrome. So many things suddenly made so much sense. For example, all of the sensory oddities Jesse displayed -- like how he always smelled his food before he would eat it, and how he would close his eyes whenever he was in a loud room, and how he refused to wear his pants up around his waist because he didn't like the way they felt around his tummy. And now I understood the whole "Mommy, there's a bump in my sock!" deal. When Jesse was about two, I spent the better part of three months yanking off his shoes and "fixing" seemingly imaginary bumps in his socks. Then, suddenly one day, for reasons known only to Jesse, he stopped complaining.
The research went on to say things are always black or white for kids with AS -- no gray areas. That so explained why Jesse would argue with you over and over about the same thing, even if you could prove to him irrevocably that he was wrong. AS kids perceive things differently and the way they perceive them is their "truth". I smiled through tears when I read that because it brought to mind a time when we were on vacation in North Carolina. We visited the Cherokee Reservation while we there. Michaelann and Kelly (Jan's daughter and Michaelann's best buddy) decided it would be fun to give all of us tribal nicknames. You know what they nicknamed Jesse? "Argues With Trees" (Benjamin, BTW, was "Squirming Dimple").
The school psychometrist came out and tested Jesse for a whole day and a half. Once finished, she called me in for a meeting. She said, "Yes, I believe Jesse probably has Asperger's, and yes, Jesse definitely has a learning disability, but it's not severe enough for us to offer him any special education services." She was basically telling me that because my child happened to be intelligent, the county wouldn't be serving him. Went home a little confused and disheartened. The next day, though, several of Jesse's teachers made a point to come into the library where I was volunteering and tell me that they DID NOT agree with the psychometrist's findings and they were going to "strongly request" that she test him again. In the meantime, Jesse's homeroom teacher would make modifications to Jesse's IEP to try and make things a little easier for him. I was truly appreciative of their efforts, but more than a little confused that NOW, all of a sudden, Jesse's former teachers were jumping in line to say there's something wrong and that the county needs to serve him. Why hadn't they said this back when Jesse had been in their classrooms?! O well, at least they were trying to help.
The special education teacher told me that if I could get a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome from a medical doctor, then the county would have to offer services to Jesse. I immediately thought of a place in Chattanooga called "Team Evaluation". As its name indicates, it was a whole diagnostic team -- psychiatrist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, medical doctor, counselor -- that evaluated every aspect of the child before making a diagnosis. I had dealings with them when I worked for Fortwood Center before Jesse was born and I knew what a thorough job they did. I also knew, though, that they usually had a waiting list of six months to a year before you could get an appointment. Since time was of the essence, I opted to call a new guy in town, a developmental psychologist, for an appointment. They could see us right away, so I was relieved. Turned out to be a BIG mistake!
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