Some of it's the age -- how long ago you were in school
I've read through my school records and had very similar thoughts. Certainly, if I was in school in the places I've lived as an adult (judged largely by what I hear happens to my friends' kids and their friends) there's no way I would have gotten through school without getting tested. At a minimum they would have picked up that I was LD. They *probably* would figure out I was on the autistic spectrum, esspecially if they had gotten me when I was younger (by the time I hit 12 or so I had gotten really savvy at hiding the 'real problems').
(Whether my parents knew, or what they knew, is under contention)
As it was, all they saw was a bright kid who was either 'too snobby' or 'too shy' to deal with the other kids, who was clearly lazy, who spent all their time 'day dreaming' and woudln't put the effort in to learn basic stuff like handwriting (actually, I was practicing 1-3 hours/day for much of my time in later elementary school. It just wasn't *helping*...though I don't think the teachers ever really believed me or my parents on that little fact) and, well, woudln't apply herself.
Bummer. And you've got about ten years on me, so they were even less inclined to be looking for it then.
I don't know, I have very mixed feelings on the increase in diagnosis in schools. Certainly, some of it is diagnosing kids whose problems are environmental and possibly some kids who are simply high spirited/otherwise difficult in an institutional (and schools *are* institutions) setting. And that does need to stop. But I know that a lot of the 'new' diagnoses are kids who really do have issues. And I know that my childhood was hellish in part because I couldn't figure out why things that came naturally to other humans just didn't work with me, and knowing that i was autistic would have helped this immensely. At the same time, I doubt that my education was worse for it, and I think I probably came out of the situation better for *not* being treated as autistic. I made it to 17.5 before being drugged (and then it was for 'psychosis' brought on because I 'wouldn't accept i was a girl', even the mental hospital didn't catch the autism at that point, though given their diagnosis I'm not sure they were really looking for anything real anyway :) ), so while the meds did take a chunk of my brain, at least I knew what chunk it was and at least I was old enough to deal with it by myself. At least I was never put into a class for 'slow' children despite being very intelligent, just unable to keep up with spoken language and social interaction (this happens to autistic children with some frequency -- as if somehow not teaching them the academics they are good at will somehow help the parts of life they aren't good at).
There are huge differences between "The things that could be done to help an autistic child in school and life" and "The things that would have been done had I actually been diagnosed".
I suppose the situation is a little less bleak for those with add/adhd (one of the many misdiagnoses I got in my early adulthood).
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2004-05-25 02:26 pm (UTC)I've read through my school records and had very similar thoughts. Certainly, if I was in school in the places I've lived as an adult (judged largely by what I hear happens to my friends' kids and their friends) there's no way I would have gotten through school without getting tested. At a minimum they would have picked up that I was LD. They *probably* would figure out I was on the autistic spectrum, esspecially if they had gotten me when I was younger (by the time I hit 12 or so I had gotten really savvy at hiding the 'real problems').
(Whether my parents knew, or what they knew, is under contention)
As it was, all they saw was a bright kid who was either 'too snobby' or 'too shy' to deal with the other kids, who was clearly lazy, who spent all their time 'day dreaming' and woudln't put the effort in to learn basic stuff like handwriting (actually, I was practicing 1-3 hours/day for much of my time in later elementary school. It just wasn't *helping*...though I don't think the teachers ever really believed me or my parents on that little fact) and, well, woudln't apply herself.
Bummer. And you've got about ten years on me, so they were even less inclined to be looking for it then.
I don't know, I have very mixed feelings on the increase in diagnosis in schools. Certainly, some of it is diagnosing kids whose problems are environmental and possibly some kids who are simply high spirited/otherwise difficult in an institutional (and schools *are* institutions) setting. And that does need to stop. But I know that a lot of the 'new' diagnoses are kids who really do have issues. And I know that my childhood was hellish in part because I couldn't figure out why things that came naturally to other humans just didn't work with me, and knowing that i was autistic would have helped this immensely. At the same time, I doubt that my education was worse for it, and I think I probably came out of the situation better for *not* being treated as autistic. I made it to 17.5 before being drugged (and then it was for 'psychosis' brought on because I 'wouldn't accept i was a girl', even the mental hospital didn't catch the autism at that point, though given their diagnosis I'm not sure they were really looking for anything real anyway :) ), so while the meds did take a chunk of my brain, at least I knew what chunk it was and at least I was old enough to deal with it by myself. At least I was never put into a class for 'slow' children despite being very intelligent, just unable to keep up with spoken language and social interaction (this happens to autistic children with some frequency -- as if somehow not teaching them the academics they are good at will somehow help the parts of life they aren't good at).
There are huge differences between "The things that could be done to help an autistic child in school and life" and "The things that would have been done had I actually been diagnosed".
I suppose the situation is a little less bleak for those with add/adhd (one of the many misdiagnoses I got in my early adulthood).