Thanks, everyone
Polarbear, I am not sure what the thread "Gifted or Pushed" was all about -- I don't think that was my intro thread.
I'm sorry if I confused posts - I tried looking back to see what you'd written previously, and found a thread where I thought you'd mentioned your school had questioned whether or not your ds was gifted or simply had a helicopterish pushy parent. I may have gotten posting parents mixed up!
Regardless, I agree with doing the neuropsych eval. I am just not sure when we will actually be able to get in, unlike a regular psychologist for ruling out/ruling in ADHD.
It usually takes several months (here at least) to get an appointment with a neuropsych, but fwiw, I'd say the wait is worth it. I will admit to personal bias on this, based on personal experience, but fwiw, I've had two of my children who either teachers or peds or other people thought had ADHD, and to be honest, I am fairly certain that I could have managed to get an ADHD diagnosis for both of them through a regular psychologist (I know for certain that one psych would have diagnosed my ds and our ped was convinced my dd has ADHD). Neither has ADHD, and their neuropsych evals were instrumental in helping us see and understand that. Had they been diagnosed for ADHD, they likely would have been recommended to go on meds, and I'm not sure that it would have been as easy to tease out what was really up from a neuropsych eval once they were on meds. Please note - I absolutely am not saying that children who have ADHD shouldn't be diagnosed and shouldn't have access to meds - it's just been my experience, *where I live* that ADHD is often the first thought that comes to mind when a child is struggling. It's also been my experience that regular psychs don't step back and recommend a neuropsych eval when they don't have all the answers.
By speed, the tester is referring to him completing the task once it is given. He takes a long time to complete it. The tester said that once he knows or determines what to write, he writes it pretty soon. His writing also is pretty logical and stays on topic.
It sounds like handwriting isn't an issue, but getting his thoughts out *might* be. Perhaps it isn't - chances are he's simply taking his time and thinking through exactly what he wants to say and how he wants to organize it. The flip side of that is, is it taking him longer than anticipated to organize his thoughts and figure out how to get them onto paper? This can be (not saying it is) but it can be a symptom of an expressive language disorder, and it can be very confusing because a child who is extremely verbal and highly capable of expressing himself when he talks can, at the same time, have difficulty getting those thoughts out on paper.
He is okay with other fine motor tasks -- I would say average.
The staff has mentioned that he has problems transitioning from one task to another -- i.e., takes him a long time to pack away his supplies and pick up his lunchbag (that sort of thing). If he is ADHD -- I think he may fall under ADHD - inattentive.
My ds had these same difficulties in early elementary school, and it looked like ADHD to his teachers, but it was due to Developmental Coordination Disorder. Not something that was obvious at all, and quite likely not something that is an issue for your ds. But - fwiw, I wouldn't automatically attribute those behaviors to ADHD, and that's why I so strongly believe the neuropsych eval is important. I also think that we often hear teachers attributing behaviors like this to ADHD because ADHD is more common than things like DCD and therefore they are familiar with ADHD - so it's the thought that comes to mind first.
Best wishes,
polarbear
