First psychiatrist appointment for difficult child 2 later today. I am totally stressing about it.

[Californiablonde]

We have our very first psychiatrist appointment for difficult child 2 today. We are seeing difficult child 1's psychiatrist. He is a very good and thorough doctor. We have been seeing him for several years. Thank goodness he has had the opportunity to witness difficult child's hyperactivity first hand. At least he can believe me about that. I'm not so sure about the social skills part of it or his other behavioural problems. His last therapist that we saw very briefly did not think he had anything wrong with him. She gave him a test on the computer that tested him to see if he was ADHD or not. He passed the test with flying colors, even when the teacher questionaire rated him severe in inability to focus and organization she did not believe it. His new teacher this year just emailed me this morning telling me he is still having a very hard time focusing, turning in work, and staying organized. Hopefully psychiatrist will take all of this into consideration and not just diagnosis him based on some computer test. This doctor usually has a very long waiting time and I am hoping we get home at a decent hour so we don't have to take our night time pills too much later than usual. My worst case scenerio is having psychiatrist tell me there is nothing wrong with difficult child 2 and he's just a rude kid with no manners and bad social skills. I am hoping to get at least some answers today so I can begin the IEP process. There's just so much on my mind right now and I am hoping for the best.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Hugs.

The ADHD thing? Keep in mind that it might not be ADHD at all. For example... APDs look a LOT like ADHD in the classroom... and double-especially the ones that don't affect language - such as auditory figure ground.

 

[buddy]

So glad you get to go to a doctor you trust. Then you can check out other ideas too....like the adhd angle versus other things that are affecting social skills or making him not able to concentrate while in a larger noisy environment like a school or going place to place versus sitting at a computer. I dont know what that computer test simulated but how many of us have or know kids who are crazy hyper but can sit and focus on computer types of activities (or video games, tv, etc...) I wonder how many kids are really identified accurately thru that program.

Hope you get home early and your schedule is not too off. Let us know how the appointment goes!

 

[keista]

Well, your post above pretty much describes DD1. She also had ADHD ruled out via a computer test. Turns out she's an Aspie. Not on the spectrum according to ADOS, but seriously lacking according to subtests which puts her back on the spectrum (I think that's how it works).

the teacher questionaire rated him severe in inability to focus and organization

That alone doesn't mean ADHD. It means the child has a difficult time with focus and organization. There's for of us just like that in this house. Heavy on the "inability to organize". None of us are ADHD.

I hope this psychiatrist gives you the answers you're looking for.

 

[JJJ]

Hope the appointment went well.

 

[Giulia]

I cross my finger for your appointment.

I just want to add that your difficult child 2 can have neuropsychologist disorder + sensorial impairment, like a sight impairment or a hearing impairment.
I have not only ADHD, but also a Single Sided Deafness (for crowded places, forget about it most of the times).
My SSD is sensorineural, so not from the brain but directly in the inner ear.

It's not because difficult child 2 has a neuropsychologist disorder that you can absolutely rule out a physical impairment (of course, it complicates the neuropsychologist disorder management : hard to always know what is the chicken, what is the egg).

A sight or hearing impairment can be hard to detect (we needed 14 years to discover my SSD. Don't ask me why, I have no idea). So it's not because, at school, they say that everything is okay that it's truly ok : tests at school don't rule out things like SSD, because the material is not adequate (I lived it first hand).
But it still can mimic neuropsychologist disorder, or it can be associated with a neuropsychologist disorder.

What I can also say is that computer tests can rule out a diagnosis whereas other tests show positive for the diagnosis. A test is interesting only when it comes back positive : it's not because a test is negative that it rules absolutely out a diagnosis (like it's not because tithe test comes back negative that you can absolutely rule out a pulmonary embolism. You can have a pulmonary embolism with negative tithe, as incredible as it seems).


So in the mean time, try also to rule out any physical impairment, which can also explain your difficult child 2's difficulties.