Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Doctor shopping for 2e?

No offense but I think people who are "tempted to pursue a fake dx for their kid" and those suggesting that the OP do so are pretty ignorant as to what a dx "gets you."

Unfortunately an ability to modify curriculum or have classroom accommodations may be attractive to some families whose children may "benefit" but in some eyes may not have a "need": extra time on tests, reduced homework, entry into "gifted" programs for which a child did not meet achievement requirements may be among the features sought.

Schools may benefit by an increase in financial aid for serving a larger number of disabled pupils.

Practitioners may benefit by increasing caseload, and in some instances increasing the files of case studies to comb for research as this is a relatively new field with constant developments.

Hmmm... I like the universe you live in. Can I move there?

Since IDEA was never fully funded (http://febp.newamerica.net/backgrou...ities-education-act-funding-distribution) most school districts (in our state -- other might be more generous in bridging the gap) are better off with the least number of identified students. Child find is a joke around here.

Which is also why every single article in the local paper that touches on special needs children absolutely needs to include a mention of how much money they take away from general ed students . They are also the semi-official excuse given for the complete cancellation of the GATE program in the district last year (yes, really, those special needs kids and the English language learners).

Thank you all….you confirmed my thoughts to keep working with him and the school on his struggles and stay away from the false labeling even if it would be beneficial.

mykids, back to your original question, I would not pursue a faux-diagnosis to get services for my child. There are several reasons that I think it's a *bad* idea:

1) There are students who genuinely have ADHD diagnoses and who need appropriate accommodations and services for their diagnosis. When families "game the system" to get their own children who aren't ADHD a diagnosis simply for the sake of getting accommodations etc, they are creating a perception of mistrust and doubt among other parents, school staff, etc that ADHD is a diagnosis-as-a-path for kids who's parents want to push and get extra privileges for their kids, which in turn makes it just more difficult for the kids who *need* the services to get the appropriate services. This isn't saying your child doesn't need *something*, but if he does not have ADHD, he does not need services and accommodations provided for students with ADHD. And it's quite possible he needs the same *type* of service - but he doesn't need them because he has ADHD.

2) You're essentially saying it's ok to fib the truth to get what you need. This isn't a message I'd want to send to my ds. Granted, your ds is very young and is probably not aware of what you'd be doing to get him the services, but it's *his* school record, and I feel that the information that is provided by parents to the school for the student's record should be truthful.

3) The diagnosis is going to go into his school record. You might find it cropping back up at you in future years and wishing you'd never had it in there. This has happened to us, with a ds who actually *had* an ADHD diagnosis when he was young. We later found out it was an incorrect diagnosis, but it still keeps popping up as a point of discussion in school team meetings etc.

4) This is what I believe to be *the* most important reason not to get the fake diagnosis - more so than my reasons 1-3 above. When you get that fake diagnosis and get him into whatever program it is you want him in, you've temporarily moved away from figuring out what's really going on. Yes, he may be happier and work better and achieve higher in a small group setting with a lot of structure and with teachers who are willing to "call him on it"... but many, if no most students with any type of challenge or without any challenges will work better in that type of environment. So you've accomplished a temporary goal but lost sight of the long-term goal of understanding what's really going on, which will in turn give you the opportunity to work toward solutions that will work for the long-term.

I'm also still curious, and you don't have to answer these questions here, but I am going to ask them once again simply because I think the answers can be very helpful to you in thinking through whether or not there is some type of to-date undiagnosed challenge going on that's resulting in the behavior challenges you've seen: Were the psych evals you had either neuropsych evals or "psych educational" evals, and did they include testing beyond ability+achievement? Were the subtest scores even across the board for the ability testing and achievement testing? Did the achievement test scores fall as high as your ds' ability scores? Were behavioral surveys of parents *and* teachers included in the ADHD screens? If the answers to any of those questions is no, it's possible there's an undiagnosed challenge out there.

My other question is what does your ds say about what's up? If the barrier to getting him into gifted services is underachievement or a teacher recommendation due to behavior challenges... and your ds is telling you the only issue is he's bored... jmo, it seems it would be a lot easier to help show your ds the benefit of challenging himself to behave and complete the work he's tasked with so that he can get the recognition he needs to get into the gifted program than it will be to spend the time/$/effort to get a fake ADHD diagnosis.

I would honestly be surprised if you can just walk into a dr's office and get an ADHD diagnosis. I know there are drs here who are more likely to give a diagnosis than others, and drs who are more quick to prescribe meds than others once a child has a diagnosis... but even those drs who are more likely to give out ADHD diagnoses are looking for specific symptoms and behaviors and looking for the behaviors to happen in more than one setting (i.e., at home and at school for instance). Even if a parent walks in and gives a bunch of fake symptoms as reasons to suspect ADHD, you aren't going to be able to fake the answers a teacher gives on a behavioral survey.

Sorry for the long reply - it sounds like you really don't want to pursue the fake diagnosis but also sounds like you are needing some type of help at school for your ds. I hope you're able to figure out a way to get him the help he needs and also get him placed appropriately for his intellectual abilities.

Best wishes,

polarbear

eta - I was posting at the same time you posted your last reply my kids, sorry I didn't see it first!

In a simple world where IDEA was fully funded and there was ample qualified staff to go around that might be the case, but it's far from the reality in my state and school district.


We need more funding and more individualized learning plans for *all* our school kids, and when we start thinking of kids from one group taking away from kids in another group, we're losing the big picture and creating barriers in our thoughts that don't need to be there. I have no doubt that there are special needs students with large needs that are getting more of a share of our school district's budget than my children and I have absolutely *NO* problem with that and I don't resent any of the $ spent for them. I trust that the administrators in my school district are making the tough decisions they have to make about program funding in times where budgets are extremely tight. Having experienced parenting children who are both gifted and have special needs, and knowing many families with gifted children and many families with special needs children.. in times of limited budgets.. I'd spend it on the special needs kids first, hands down. The problem isn't that the special needs kids are "taking away" money from the general ed fund, the problem is we aren't funding public education in the US in a sustainable way for *all* of our children.

Sorry for the brief trip onto my soap box... stepping back off

polarbear

As far as I can tell, child-find and inclusive practices are pretty much a joke EVERYWHERE.

Feeling particularly bitter on this subject this morning.

Don't even get me started! It was almost impossible to get DS an IEP in the first place and within a year of him getting it they were talking about taking it away, and kept trying to come up with "fake" progress that seemed to be clear to everyone but me and Dh. It has also proven almost impossible to get OT services onto DS's IEP. The school wouldn't even evaluate him! I finally had to complain to the State, an advocacy group, etc. before they finally agreed to do anything. DS's IEP manager told me it would be pointless to even bother trying to get OT or a "Physically Impaired" IEP because DS would hardly get anything anyway. They don't want to "find" special needs kids OR give them any services. So that's one reason why I'm so frustrated with the concept of someone coming up with a fake disability in order to get services that are already spread so thin among kids who actually have disabilities. They told me the MOST anyone would ever get in our school for OT would be 20 minutes per week.

Seriously! I am really perplexed as how getting a gifted neurotypical child a fake diagnosis would get him/her anything!!! It barely gets the kids that actually HAVE a dx anything but prejudices, biases and false assumptions!

And I'd really like to know how a dx would be a kid's ticket into a gifted program! Almost all of the parents I know don't think 2e children exist or belong in a gifted program and it seems like an AWFUL lot of educators and admins feel the same way... Perhaps OP is some other country or something and the other poster who said a dx on her daughter's chart would be an "open sesame" for her... but they sure as hell aren't in my district.

Yup every time I turned around last year (as you all may remember) the school tried to 'sneak' the accommodations out of the IEP. And the kicker I had to fight tooth and nail to get those accommodation in there in the first place!

Oh and the "therapies?" please ... 20 minutes per week if lucky.


And I didn't even give the school my kid's diagnosis of dysgraphia! They "do not use the word" They do not recognize it and no one understands what it is anyway. And it's the same for dyslexia. Those poor kids get NOTHING. No decent remediation for their dyslexia, just remedial reading classes that do not help and, again - the school does not "recognize" dyslexia. They do not even use the word! How in the word does having a diagnosis of an LD help when the schools do not recognize the LDS in the first place?!

I really think they is a lot of ignorance and prejudice going here, i.e., the erroneous belief that a disability is some kid of 'meal ticket.' I can assure you it is not.