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I've posted previously on DS9 with his emotional / behavioral issues. Met with the psychologist who analyzed him yesterday, and finally received a diagnosis.

He has a very high IQ - mid 140's. However, he is extremely single minded, focuses almost entirely on the details of a task and misses the big picture. Thus, he is very good at academic tasks, such as memorizing, math, etc. But, his ability to deal with unexpected outcomes, think flexibly, and see the forest to the trees is limited. No ADHD or autism spectrum issues though.

This would tend to explain his outbursts and how easily he gets upset when an event does not go his way. It also explains his problems with transitions.

Further, the psychologist diagnosed him with mild depression due to his low self-esteem, as well as anxiety. The anxiety diagnosis is the one we're going to use with the school to get them to accommodate his needs.

Things are starting to fall into place now. DS9 is gifted even among gifted kids. And his classmates, even the other kids in the gifted program, are a somewhat homogeneous group. They are all into sports and he is not. So, he doesn't fit in at all and probably believes that it is his fault.

I realize that this is the first step of a long process, but I'm feeling a little better now that we have something concrete to take to the school to show them that he's not just "a difficult child."

Interesting; my DD, with somewhat similar issues, also has a depression/anxiety diagnosis. How confident do you feel that it is correct? I am a little unsure that depression and anxiety are adequate to explain my DD's behavioral issues (mainly inappropriate anger, desire to control).

I was not surprised at all with the diagnosis. It is pretty clear my kid has anxiety, as the suggestion of any new experience is enough to set him off. The depression was a bit more of a surprise, but given his inability to make friends this year, fits quite well.

Sometimes anxiety presents as the need to control -- i.e., a perceived lack of control causes the anxiety.

BSM,

You must feel so relieved to have more information to work with. Good for you for being such a great advocate!

My DD loves new experiences, but has a high "need to know" about...everything (what's that sound? what are you talking about over there? what do they mean when they say XYZ on the radio about the dangers of 123?), which is where I can see the anxiety.

My DS has an anxiety diagnosis and has this. It can get really bad depending how stressed he is. Like when his vision disorder was undetected and his hypotonia wasn't being properly accommodated he had control issues of color of ink and color of cups, having his picture taken, being "forced" to sing certain songs, say the Pledge, etc. As his vision and hypotonia were addressed and accommodated - almost all of that fell away.


My DS has this too. It was the school psych and the principal who pointed this out actually (they're not all bad LOL)... It's in his IEp and at the IEP meeting that is the one thing that is very constructive that happens - that is, that they discuss how all of the teachers and aids need to know how to approach this sort of thing with DS because some see the insistent "why" as oppositional when it isn't, it is his anxiety. For example (school actually gave this example at the IEP meeting), kids were told to bring their coats with them to art class... My DS started getting all concerned and needing to know "why would we have to do that? - we shouldn't be needing our coats in art class? Something is going on - what is it?" What was going on was there was to be a surprise fire drill and teacher wanted to just say to DS "because we said so that's why" but she knew that would cause a problem and stress him out so even though she couldn't tell him exactly why, she sat down with him and explained as much of the "why" as possible - i.e., how principal gave her this order and since we do trust Mr. Principal... etc ... He is fine with the surprise fire drill (or any transition at all or any new experiences) because he knows the why behind them... it's when he doesn't know the "why" behind something he starts getting anxious and gets really anxious when he is "punished" for asking "why" with responses like "because I said so!" he really starts getting upset then!

Oh wow--that is a PERFECT example of something that would really stress DD out. And yes, she would ask why why why but why but why?, and some teachers would see it as oppositional/obnoxious.

You make me think about having an IEP for her (we do not have one; school behavior isn't much of an issue, but she does present as high-strung, and occasionally gets in trouble for "disrespect" that is really more like the above).

My son would get into trouble for it a lot! Especially when he was in full breakdown mode last year! Now of course he's better over all but he still has the "need to know" thing and it is still relatively intense... The only time we have trouble now is with substitutes and administrator-type people who are not familiar with the IEP. Also, the principal is very careful with teacher placement for him because of it - basically DS can't be put with some inflexible old-school type teacher who goes by "because I said so." If you need the specific wording for an IEP or 504 I can put it here for you...

I'm glad you got the diagnosis! Did they give him achievement testing as well as IQ? Are you going to apply to DYS?

They did the entire WISC-IV. We do not have the written results yet and only discussed the results verbally.

I don't know much about DYS and haven't had a chance to look into it. I think we may look at local option and enrichment opportunities first, but thanks for the pointer.

WISC-IV is an IQ test - the achievement test would have been WIAT-III or Woodcock-Johnson. But you could still apply with a portfolio. I mention it because Davidson has been really helpful to us in figuring out how to approach the school and discuss DD9's issues, and I know that she and your son present rather similarly.

At any rate, good luck going forward!

Thanks. We're currently taking it one step at a time: working on how to limit the explosions at home, getting a plan in place with the public school, then maybe looking into enrichment or private schooling options.

Interesting. You could very well be describing my DS10, who does have an ASD diagnosis. That collection of traits, with the anxiety, is highly characteristic of bright or gifted kids with autism.

Did they say why and on what basis they ruled it out? I would want them to do an ADOS, which is a standardized social skills assessment, as well as a Vineland test of adaptive skills and a Conner's rating scale.

Glad you are starting to have answers-- it really helps.

DeeDee

Yup. My DD has anxiety and her grade 2 teacher described her as having "the best adult manipulation skills that I (the teacher) have ever encountered." She needed to control everything and everyone. She's (now 10) getting much better, thankfully

DS9 can be very manipulative as well. This is part of the difficulty - he lacks the capacity to understand how he's making other people feel, it requires patience to deal with him, but it is hard to accommodate him when he's being autocratic.

I concur with DeeDee re the ADOS etc

An autism dx is not a horrible thing, and can open up many doors for future services...

oh forgot my Congrats to you BSM~ on the test scores, for your child And regardless of dx, sounds like you are moving in right direction which is forward. It is ok to take your time and really understand what is happening. There is always so much to absorb...
take care

cc6, thank you. The last year has been stressful, and the last month or so, especially. I realize that it is going to be slow, but I am happy that we at least have a path forward.

I would have trouble with the coat thing too:-)