Well the results came today in the mail. I don't know if I want them...
The evaluation indicates that the following are present (a)"a mental diagnosis" with (b) "substantial limitations related to the diagnosis"; and (c) "the affected activities are central to daily life".
Officially diagnosis's: Extreme ADHD, Phonological Disorder; Parent-Child relational problem, Sibling relational problem
Recommendations:
For difficult child: Speech therapy, Occupational Therapy, Psychiatrist for medication, a sport or activity, possible 504 needed for school, or special education classes, re-testing in the future to ensure that there are not other learning disabilities present, behavior management and skills development services, no unsupervised contact with deviant peers, opportunities to be around pro-social peers, keyboarding skills and/or speech recognition software to help with writing.
For mom (and dad when he's home): Books to read, parenting classes, Social Worker, Respite Care, and possibility of financial support. (I've already taken the parenting classes, and I'm in the midst of reading some books, but he gave some suggestions for more)
More information:
The test scores in the report are consistently low, but being that there is a high margin of error since he wasn't medicated at the time, they suggest that the report be interpreted very cautiously. He ranked low in the motor output, attention, memory, visual-motor coordination, executive functioning, naming, auditory-verbal comprehension, speech articulation, listening comprehension, and reading.
Being that he was a preemie, known long term problems may exist (such as lower IQ, language problems, visual-motor problems, behavioral and learning difficulties, respiratory problems, and visual processing problems).
His home environment 'is worthy of clinical attention' (have no idea what that means).
They were unable to get a good sense of difficult child's underlying neuro-psychological functioning base caused by poor effort, and he should be diagnosis'd later in life to make the correct diagnosis.
Future testing will help to rule in or out: Adjustment disorder, developmental coordination disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, mood disorder, and borderline intellectual functioning.
GAF: > 61 (psychiatric impairment)
SOFAS: > 40 (cognitive impairment)
Ok, I really have no idea what the GAF or SOFAS mean. I also don't know what all the numbers on his test result mean. If someone could explain, it would be greatly appreciated.
Also, I need a hug. After reading the report, it makes me feel like a bad mother. Hubby says I'm doing everything that I can, and that I should be proud of everything that I have accomplished. But the recommendation for parenting classes, a social worker, and the suggested readings seem to be putting a damper on it. Not too mention that there is a lot to still work on and I'm afraid to even try to process it at the moment for fear of breakdown. I see my therapist tomorrow, and I'm thankful for that.
Thanks in advance.