FWIW, we had a very similar experience with our teacher's BASC rating back in 2nd grade when ds had his first neuropsych eval. We didn't realize he was dysgraphic at that point in time, he was clearly struggling (and failing) in the classroom and he was having panic attacks at home and at school. I didn't realize it then, but now, years later, when ds has finally found his voice, he's very up front with me that he will never forget 2nd grade because it was the worst year of his life. His teacher thought he had ADHD or was cognitively challenged or maybe something else. She complained that he never did any work, that he stared off into space and that he refused to do any work in class. I was worried that there might be bias in her BASC report, so we purposely asked that ds' student teacher also fill out a report (our neuropsych agreed that it was a good idea to have her fill out a survey -she'd been in the classroom full-time all year so she'd had lots of opportunity to observe and get to know ds). Weeeellllll..... after we'd given the reports to each teacher (at the same time)... the classroom teacher told the student teacher not to fill her report out and she later told us that she'd be the only teacher filling out the report because the student teacher didn't have enough experience to fill it out. Ridiculous!
And, get these two: "always seems out of touch with reality" and "always does strange things"! Also, she put "often" for "acts strangely." And is "often chosen last for games"
I knew our teacher's report was going to be depressing to read, and it was - even more so than I predicted. I quoted the above responses your ds had because our ds' teacher said the same things about those. The "always" just really got to me. Another one of her rankings I will *never* forget was she reported that he "never washed his hands after using the bathroom"... um.... how the heck did she know that... was she following him into the bathroom? Honestly, he was a 7 year old boy... as his mom I try my best to teach him good hygiene habits but I wasn't following him into the bathroom to check at the time... and... oh gosh, ds never *went* to the bathroom at school because he was afraid of getting lost.
Anyway, fwiw, our ds did receive a diagnosis of ADHD (inattentive, mild) through that neuropsych eval, and the reasons for the diagnosis were the ratings from the teacher and a slightly elevated response on a computerized test of attention. A follow-up ADHD eval by our ped two years later resulted in a non-diagnosis but attributed the symptoms that looked like ADHD to dyspraxia as well as boredom in the classroom. A follow-up neuropsych eval prior to middle school also reported no symptoms of ADHD.
In your shoes, I would talk to the evaluator about your concerns about the teachers' responses. I would *eventually* talk to the teacher, but not until after you have your report from the person doing the eval. Then I'd approach it by saying "the evaluator shared this information with me from the BASC survey you filled out for ds". That's the way I'd go about talking to the teacher and trying to get some real information about what's going on in class without having her know I opened the envelope. Our neuropsych showed us a bunch of ds' teacher's responses directly from her filled-out form in our parent review.
These simply do not comport with the kid I know
It's not the child you know. You know your ds better than anyone. The way I'd look at this *one* report is that something's not working in his classroom and that there's *something* up - so go forward, see what the teacher has to say when you ask her about what she's said in the report, keep staying on top of what you can re what's up with your ds and just keep moving forward. Definitely let the evaluator know you have concerns about the teacher's responses. You might also have the evaluator look at ds' previous' BASC or ADHD eval reports. The one thing that I've been told (by our ped) is key in diagnosing ADHD is that the behaviors must occur in more than one setting (school alone doesn't count) and that the behaviors should have been present before your child started school. I don't know that they'd always be noticable, but fwiw, that was one of our ped's strongest concerns with our ds' diagnosis - he had had no signs of ADHD in preschool or at home.
So, I am not sure what to do. On the one hand, should I sit down with her about these items and confront her and ask for specifics?
I would definitely talk to her about them, but as I mentioned above, I'd wait until I could tell her I found out from the evaluator rather than let her know you opened the envelope up.
If they are true I feel like he must really be unhappy at school and perhaps I should seriously consider pulling him.
Pulling him out might not be the only solution - we moved our ds to a different classroom rather than pulling him out of school.
SO heartbreaking to read this stuff about your own kid. Especially when the kid you see is so cool and creative and sweet and smart
It is really tough to read this type of input on your child - it still upsets me to think about it many years later. I don't know if it will help at all to know this, but that sad little boy that I read about in that depressingly horrible BASC rating so many years ago in 2nd grade is about to go to high school next year - and he's a wonderful kid (no bias lol!). He went through years of struggle in elementary school but he's found himself, he has really gained a ton of maturity and self-awareness over the past two years in particular, and he's made a ton of progress re his challenges. He's motivated, he's happy (usually lol), he has friends, and he's just a very *nice* kid. A teacher who met him today would *never* anticipate that his 2nd grade teacher could have said the things that were said on his BASC.
Hang in there,
polarbear
