Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Give old scores to new doc?

Hi!

We have a DS11 who we are about to evaluate. When DS was 7.5 he was given an educational assessment that included the WISC. The scores were not at all what we expected, in a bad way. The last few years have been spent trying to accept the lower scores and mostly just feeling that the first scores don't reflect our son. Too, we've thought for years that our DS may have 2e issues -- possibly dyslexia and ADD. My DH and I are both gifted, our DD8 is HG+ and our DS5.5 is MG. Virtually everyone on both sides of our family are G.

My question is, do we have to give the psychologist doing the new evaluation his previous testing results prior to her doing her assessment, or can we wait until afterwards? We'd really like her to take a fresh look at him. BTW: she is a psych experienced with gifted and 2e, just in case.

Thanks for your opinions.

Do you *have* to? I don't know. Would I? Nope. I think these things are highly subjective and I wouldn't want the psych having any preconceived notions. A friend was told by her pedi not to inform the school that DS had been put on ADHD meds so that they could get an accurate assessment (unbiased as the teachers wanted medication for DS) of his behavior/attention.

I agree with Dazed. If I was the psych I wouldn't want to see old scores until after I'd finished my assessment (if at all). I'd aim for unbiased results.

Yep. You could or not mention that he was previously evaluated. Our tester was interested in seeing Dd's old results WHEN we were discussing the new ones. Her therapist also saw both; most testers don;t get to see retesting results....

My suggestion would be to be direct with the tester: "The child was previously tested. We didn't feel the results were at all accurate and we are wondering about 2e issues.. Would you like to see the old test results and if so why or why not?"

Seeing the previous results may be informative in helping the tester choose the right test to use this time. Any good tester with experience with 2e gifted kids would be aware previous testing is a snapshot of a single day and may not be at all accurate for a variety of reasons. On some level if you really don't believe your tester is aware enough to make that distinction I don't think you have enough confidence in this person to invest in testing with her.

Nope, I wouldn't. I don't even think that medical doctors should be told what a first opinion was if you're going to them for a second opinion. If they think they know what they're looking for, they're more likely to find it--and stop looking. It's always good to get a fresh perspective without having it colored by preconceptions.

Would you withhold previous blood work, MRIs, etc. as well? To me that seems like the equivalent of withholding IQ testing. My perspective might be different if we were talking about whether or not to give the results to the school, but in this situation it is a specialist in gifted 2e kids. Anyone good in this category often sees kids who have been badly tested or misdiagnosed first and they know how to deal with that.

Those are all valid points.

When I talked to the tester, I explained that we were concerned about some 2E issues, and I mentioned them. I also told her that we believed the first results were not acurrate, and I explained why we thought so.

Being open but not actually showing the results/details seemes to have worked for us.

Mam, that is what I was thinking of doing. I don't want to send the tester in any one direction. I just didn't know if it was ethical of me or not to withhold the actual testing data. So, thank you everyone for your opinions! You made my decision much easier!

I thought I could tell her that we'd had testing before, we didn't think it was accurate, that my DS has two siblings (one MG and one HG+) and that we are as well, and so that is why I'd like to have someone experienced with both evaluating gifted and 2e, just in case. I figured I'd probably have to tell her that we're concerned about attention issues as well as possible other possible LDs. Really we're just looking for a thorough evaluation that looks into almost everything and I don't want her to rule anything out or in until she meets and evaluates him. Is that reasonable?

When my 11 year old twice exceptional son was tested by a neuropsychologist to confirm an earlier verbal diagnosis of motor dyspraxia so he could finally get therapy, I not only gave the neuropsychologist a copy of the WIAT and educational psychologist's comments, but also a detailed history of my son's milestones and examples of things he said and did at various ages. They found it very helpful. I think it helped us get the diagnosis. Until then, we had to deal with people who didn't believe that he had any kind of disability. They couldn't understand why he had difficulty doing certain things when he sounded so very smart every time he opened his mouth. They assumed it must be laziness and this was very difficult for my son. He was very sensitive to this and as a result I felt I had to be a helicopter parent. The only person who really understood was the mom of one of my son's friends who has a degree in special ed and has gifted sons. When we had trouble getting pediatricians (different one every year) at the military base to listen to us, she encouraged me to keep trying.

I am so glad we finally got a diagnosis on paper because my son is finally getting therapy and my anxiety level has decreased. The physical therapists noticed that my son has really flat feet and this in addition to the low tone issues was causing the leg and foot pain. Every year the pediatricians told us it was "growing pains" and to just give him Tylenol. They never took the time to try to figure out why he hurt.