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This year K's Learning Disability (LD) has started creeping up on her even though she is still ahead of most of her class on some things. Most teachers would think she was doing OK, besides her ADHD symptoms and writing issues.
But the neuro-psychiatric evaluation has caught the issues. We can track them and are seeing them happen. It just explains so much more about our kids, whether the psychiatrist wants to see it or not.
It showed speech issues as well.
We also have a better IEP now. Because of it.
i guess, to answer op's question, no, a neuropsychologist workup will not definitively diagnose BiPolar (BP), unless there is something i really don't know. (think about it, if that kind of testing could diagnosis, that would be the FIRST course of action in suspected BiPolar (BP), Know what I mean??). it IS however, useful in identifying underlying needs and deficiencies, and particularly helpful to identify education needs. i'd vote for doing it if you possibly can....
we are at the same place as totoro and her difficult child...
(in fact, she was scheduled for today, and i canceled for now)
we are pursuing neuropsychologist testing for
exactly the same reason, and to identifiy similar type issues and to write a stronger iep. my difficult child has done the educational portions in the past and they would have been moderately useful if i had an outside opinion, vs just thrown at me from the school with no reccommendations. but now i know better
same deal with mine....she's an academic superstar, and all teachers say she's doing more than ok. maybe next to the rest of the population, but certainly not what her intelligence tells us she's capable of. for a host of reasons, some due to the school themselves, to ME its obvious there are issues that are impacting her learning. some of her issues will hopefully resolve with stablization, some probably wont, and she will need accomodations to manage.
but i can also tell you our psychiatrist has zero interest in it as well, he's made it clear that its not going to change his diagnosis, and i understand what he's saying.
but its worth the $$$ for me to help her in any way i can...