Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New profile posts
Latest activity
Internet Search
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Parent Support Forums
General Parenting
New to this forum
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 62627" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Whatever diagnosis you end up with, be aware that it STILL is not certainty. However, a label, ANY label, will help you/the school access services. That could by why the school was fighting to give him a label. Although if you have an IEP in place, you're part-way there in terms of giving him some support.</p><p></p><p>At some level you have already worked out what you're dealing with. It doesn't have a name but it has certain characteristics which at some level you are dealing with and can almost predict at times. This is vital information which can assist towards a more accurate diagnosis from health professionals.</p><p></p><p>I was talking to a parent outside difficult child 3's drama class last night, whose son has never had any problems accessing services because he has clearly identified needs. She seemed surprised that anyone would bother looking for a psychometric assessment, for example, outside the education system. She had no idea of the problems many of us other parents face, when our child cannot be so readily pigeonholed. As she said, "everything has been handed to us on a plate."</p><p></p><p>She was horrified when I described how difficult child 1 had been assessed at school and basically 'failed' his first IQ test, because he could not sit still and did not understand why he was being tested. He failed to finish the test, but the rules say the test has to be scored as if completed. The tester (who was the school counsellor) should have known that this compromised the test but used difficult child 1's low score to attack ME for difficult child 1's obvious inexplicable ability in a number of subjects - I was clearly pushing him to achieve above his level of ability (which, by the way, is not possible to do).</p><p></p><p>Somoe school districts are wonderful in how they will test a child and support parents of a difficult child. Others have a political agenda. But from my experience (and bear in mind, I'm in Australia) ALL school districts are limited in the scope of testing they can do - all they can test is general overview of ability, not the deeper intricacies of learning difficulties. They actually will average out even really huge sub-score discrepancies, rather than recognise that a verbal performance score of 18, mixed with a coding score of 6, indicates something really interfering with that child's prodigious ability. So when the give an averaged-out IQ score of 110 and say, "That's above average, you should be happy with that. And your child is passing the subject - just - which is within the expectations at that IQ score."</p><p>Meanwhile you have a child who clearly should be capable of more but has problems in personal organisation, in transferring information from one point to another (could be caused by any of a number of problems including vision, memory (short-term or long-term), hearing, fine motor skills, other more complex aspects ALL of which need to be assessed for more careful and accurate identification) and needs to be studied more.</p><p></p><p>Basically, the school has unknowingly identified a child who is gifted but learning disabled, but by averaging out the scores has negated their requirement to attend to BOTH needs. The student is frustrated, bored, distracted and eventually, very angry. But doesn't know why. Teachers 'dumb down' their teaching to that student (clearly not as smart as they thought, the IQ test confirms that they're not that bright) and the problems escalate instead of improve.</p><p></p><p>BUT - there is good news. You can use a school's assessment results to speed up the private process, as well as reduce the costs. You get the school results, including the sub-score results, sent to the private expert of your choice (for us it has to be a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist - I don't think we have neurospychiatrists in Australia) and they will look at the sub-scores and know which ones to assess in more detail, further.</p><p></p><p>This is what we did with difficult child 1. Of course, we were not permitted to carry a copy of the results ourselves - parents are not permitted access to the subscores from the school (or weren't back then) but they posted a copy to the bloke we chose. He tut-tutted, gave difficult child 1 more tests and also sent us to an optometrist who specialises in kids with learning problems. He identified a vision problem, correctable with glasses, which was adding to the information transfer issues. </p><p></p><p>The biggest problem we faced - difficult child 1 was sixteen at this stage and trying to assess him was difficult as he had adapted to his condition, he was able to mask it very well. Not well enough to do OK in school, but well enough to 'get by'. He uses his long-term memory to compensate for his faulty short-term memory, so he has to be tested meticulously. This was not done, but I was observing and could see what went wrong with the testing procedure.</p><p></p><p>So now, although on paper difficult child 1 has no memory problems, WE know and compensate for it so he can continue to develop his management strategies.</p><p></p><p>easy child 2/difficult child 2 has been assessed as NOT having Asperger's, but only having mid inattentive-type ADD. WE know it's much more, WE can see the Asperger's, but her pediatrician cannot ("because she makes good eye contact" - yeah, with HIM - she knows him). We could push the point, get her independently assessed, but she's 20 now, almost 21. What difference will it make to her NOW? She's already getting disability support as much as she needs. SHE knows how to adapt, and now that we understand a bit better we have changed how we deal with her and we g et along much better.</p><p></p><p>So there is a difference between what the professionals can tell you, and what you personally believe and how you cope. Use the professional labels/support to get the practical help you need to meet what YOU understand the problems to be. Be aware that you may need to up the ante at some stage in the future, which is why we try to get as accurate a label as possible, as young as possible - the older they are, the harder to get an accurate diagnosis.</p><p></p><p>Never worry about your child "being labelled". If there is no legitimate reason for what the schools (and others) observe, then your child is going to be labelled anyway - as a difficult, problem kid, with no valid reason to be so (since there is no diagnosis to justify it). The label is going to happen if your child is not prefect. it's just a matter of parental choice, WHICH sort of label it's going to be - medical problem? Or social problem?</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 62627, member: 1991"] Whatever diagnosis you end up with, be aware that it STILL is not certainty. However, a label, ANY label, will help you/the school access services. That could by why the school was fighting to give him a label. Although if you have an IEP in place, you're part-way there in terms of giving him some support. At some level you have already worked out what you're dealing with. It doesn't have a name but it has certain characteristics which at some level you are dealing with and can almost predict at times. This is vital information which can assist towards a more accurate diagnosis from health professionals. I was talking to a parent outside difficult child 3's drama class last night, whose son has never had any problems accessing services because he has clearly identified needs. She seemed surprised that anyone would bother looking for a psychometric assessment, for example, outside the education system. She had no idea of the problems many of us other parents face, when our child cannot be so readily pigeonholed. As she said, "everything has been handed to us on a plate." She was horrified when I described how difficult child 1 had been assessed at school and basically 'failed' his first IQ test, because he could not sit still and did not understand why he was being tested. He failed to finish the test, but the rules say the test has to be scored as if completed. The tester (who was the school counsellor) should have known that this compromised the test but used difficult child 1's low score to attack ME for difficult child 1's obvious inexplicable ability in a number of subjects - I was clearly pushing him to achieve above his level of ability (which, by the way, is not possible to do). Somoe school districts are wonderful in how they will test a child and support parents of a difficult child. Others have a political agenda. But from my experience (and bear in mind, I'm in Australia) ALL school districts are limited in the scope of testing they can do - all they can test is general overview of ability, not the deeper intricacies of learning difficulties. They actually will average out even really huge sub-score discrepancies, rather than recognise that a verbal performance score of 18, mixed with a coding score of 6, indicates something really interfering with that child's prodigious ability. So when the give an averaged-out IQ score of 110 and say, "That's above average, you should be happy with that. And your child is passing the subject - just - which is within the expectations at that IQ score." Meanwhile you have a child who clearly should be capable of more but has problems in personal organisation, in transferring information from one point to another (could be caused by any of a number of problems including vision, memory (short-term or long-term), hearing, fine motor skills, other more complex aspects ALL of which need to be assessed for more careful and accurate identification) and needs to be studied more. Basically, the school has unknowingly identified a child who is gifted but learning disabled, but by averaging out the scores has negated their requirement to attend to BOTH needs. The student is frustrated, bored, distracted and eventually, very angry. But doesn't know why. Teachers 'dumb down' their teaching to that student (clearly not as smart as they thought, the IQ test confirms that they're not that bright) and the problems escalate instead of improve. BUT - there is good news. You can use a school's assessment results to speed up the private process, as well as reduce the costs. You get the school results, including the sub-score results, sent to the private expert of your choice (for us it has to be a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist - I don't think we have neurospychiatrists in Australia) and they will look at the sub-scores and know which ones to assess in more detail, further. This is what we did with difficult child 1. Of course, we were not permitted to carry a copy of the results ourselves - parents are not permitted access to the subscores from the school (or weren't back then) but they posted a copy to the bloke we chose. He tut-tutted, gave difficult child 1 more tests and also sent us to an optometrist who specialises in kids with learning problems. He identified a vision problem, correctable with glasses, which was adding to the information transfer issues. The biggest problem we faced - difficult child 1 was sixteen at this stage and trying to assess him was difficult as he had adapted to his condition, he was able to mask it very well. Not well enough to do OK in school, but well enough to 'get by'. He uses his long-term memory to compensate for his faulty short-term memory, so he has to be tested meticulously. This was not done, but I was observing and could see what went wrong with the testing procedure. So now, although on paper difficult child 1 has no memory problems, WE know and compensate for it so he can continue to develop his management strategies. easy child 2/difficult child 2 has been assessed as NOT having Asperger's, but only having mid inattentive-type ADD. WE know it's much more, WE can see the Asperger's, but her pediatrician cannot ("because she makes good eye contact" - yeah, with HIM - she knows him). We could push the point, get her independently assessed, but she's 20 now, almost 21. What difference will it make to her NOW? She's already getting disability support as much as she needs. SHE knows how to adapt, and now that we understand a bit better we have changed how we deal with her and we g et along much better. So there is a difference between what the professionals can tell you, and what you personally believe and how you cope. Use the professional labels/support to get the practical help you need to meet what YOU understand the problems to be. Be aware that you may need to up the ante at some stage in the future, which is why we try to get as accurate a label as possible, as young as possible - the older they are, the harder to get an accurate diagnosis. Never worry about your child "being labelled". If there is no legitimate reason for what the schools (and others) observe, then your child is going to be labelled anyway - as a difficult, problem kid, with no valid reason to be so (since there is no diagnosis to justify it). The label is going to happen if your child is not prefect. it's just a matter of parental choice, WHICH sort of label it's going to be - medical problem? Or social problem? Marg [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Parent Support Forums
General Parenting
New to this forum
Top