global developmental delay diagnosis 'expiring'?

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Sarahmarie

Guest
Hello, everyone my name is Sarah. i have a little boy who will be turning six in September and i have been notified that he is required by law to have a re-evaluation of intelligence and adaptive skills once they have turned sisx years of age. I don't know what to expect. has anyone had this happen before and what was the outcome? he is behind i'd say at least 2 years in everything. They say At age 6, a more specific diagnosis must be obtained. Is there a website i can go to to get like a sample test so i can have some idea? help if this has happend to any of you or anyone you know, what was the new diagnosis?
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Do you live in the US? I haven't ever heard of this before and I think you should pick your own diagnostician. I like neuropsychs. Who has told you this law? Honestly...I'm not sure it's the truth. But it IS a good idea to evaluate your son on your own if he is two years behind in development so that you know what is going on and how best to help him.

If you are in the US, I have heard of kids with developmental delays (most common reason is autistic spectrum, but there are other reasons), but never heard of a mandate to retest a child. What state are you in?
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
I don't live in North America, but that is how it goes here. Well, it is not law, but it is common that young kids will have diagnose of global developmental delay and after they grow older, six or seven, they are re-evaluated and given more specific diagnose that of course depends from kid but can be anything from asperger to LDs to mental retardation. Global developmental delay is just used as working diagnose for certain kids when kid is still so young that anything more accurate is just a guess. It gives services for a kid and time to watch how kid will develop before giving him any narrower diagnose.
 

slsh

member since 1999
Yes, this is how it worked for us and our oldest son (who is now 24). His classification for the purpose of early intervention through the school was "developmental delay." His medical diagnosis was spastic quadriplegia (cerebral palsy). When he hit about 1st grade, for school purposes they had to change his classification - they went with "other health impaired" because he's nonverbal, visually impaired, as well as quad.

The reasoning for this (according to our school at the time) was that a lot of times kids with developmental delays catch up during those early intervention years, so that by the time they hit 1st grade there's minimal, if any, delay. They use "developmental delay" as a catch all in those early years. For the kids who still have a delay, a more specific classification is needed (I believe has to do with funding issues for the schools). For example, my son's disability is so severe that it's considered "low incidence" and his SDs always got more funding to educate him - hence the other health impairment classification.

In terms of a medical diagnosis, I don't believe you should take the school's determination as fact. They're not doctors and are solely concerned with the educational impact of his delays. Has he been evaluated by a developmental pediatrician or a neurologist or... some other MD?

You can ask the school what specific tests are going to be performed. I would guess there will be gross motor/fine motor/cognitive/etc tests. Again, they're just going to be looking for his strengths and weaknesses, and what areas are going to need to be covered by his IEP.
 
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Sarahmarie

Guest
I live in Missouri. and his teachers told me. how do I evaluate him on my own? please let me know, i would love to do that.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Go to private professionals, not through the schools. My own kids were school tested and at least in our experience it seems they never found the right stuff and a lot of it was $$$ related. The less they find, the less they have to cough up in interventions. Most of the time the best and brightest diagnosticians are not in the schools. They are in private practice, at children's hospitals or university hospitals.
 
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