umm... English please??

Here is a copy of an email I received from S's specialist today. It is a forward from the new doctor S will be seeing for the fMRI...

Dr R
I'm planning to set up S's fMRI. As I see it on your requisition, he is a 12 year old with Aspergers syndrome, with anxiety. I'm thinking of doing covert Verb generation, Sentence Completion and Naming paradigms. Do you think he will be able to lay in the magnet for an hour without moving? Do you think he could follow instructions to do these tests? If yes, maybe doing a Diffusion Tensor Imaging to visualize white matter fibers and comparing the Arcuate fasciculus to normals would be of interest as well. If you think he could not handle it please let me know.
Thanks
Dr's name & hospital

Okay, this email has me puzzled for a couple of reasons. Uh...aspergers syndrome? We have never been told he has this disorder. And what the HECK are all these other tests all about??!! I can tell I will be spending a bit of time on the google search engine tonight...

I forwarded this to S's special ed teacher, and she replied very quickly. Her email indicated that if S has Aspergers, we will have to have his IPRC placement adjusted, and she is very upset that the original psycho-ed assessment didn't catch this along with his learning disorders. (This is one disorder she understands well as her eldest child has been undergoing testing for it.)

In the past, S's doctor has indicated that he feels S has a "nonverbal learning disorder." When I sent him a WTF? email about the Asperger's dx, our current specialist's reply email to me indicated that this NVLD would fall within the Aspergers Syndrome spectrum of disorders, and he assured me that S doesn't have Aspergers and the other doctor must have assumed this because of the testing that has been requested. I am not 100% convinced. That is a pretty big assumption for a doctor to make when setting up a very specific, very specialized type of test. Part of me is wondering if Dr R. is wanting to rule out Aspergers with this testing. I am so confused...

Aspergers would definitely explain the lack of social skill's development. I guess we will just have to play the waiting game - again. In the meantime, I have all kinds of new information to research...