Do you trust your gut as a parent or do you go with what "the specialists" say? Thoughts? Experiences?
That is not an "either or" question.
We weigh all information, whether we like it or not. We consider the source (and how well-informed they are in general, and how much they know our child in particular). We consider the evidence presented, and how much we believe that evidence to be well-founded.
In the end, we take all this information and use it to inform our gut.
ITA with DeeDee. I'll also add that the question you're asking is very situational - i.e., what is it you're weighing, and what step are you at? Do you have professional opinions that don't jive, or are you swimming out in the deep end and trying to get back to the shore with only your parental gut instinct.
I do very much trust my gut, but I've also been in a place where my gut was *VERY* wrong. When my 2e ds was in early elementary he was having a ton of challenges which I had a strong gut feeling about, his teacher also had a strong gut feeling about, and our feelings were in total polar opposite directions. I acted on my gut feeling (based on a bit of reading and research) *without* having a professional veal, and that led to a lot of lost time and regret on my part. The things I could make sound judgments on were correct, but there was a world of information out there that I knew nothing about, and if I'd stuck with just following my gut I wouldn't have had a clue what was really going on with my ds.
I hope that makes sense cola - my gut feeling (if you want to trust *my* gut lol!) from the posts you've made recently is that you need more info and a *broad* look at your ds' functioning to understand what's up. That first broad look via a neuropsych eval was the single best thing we've done in terms of understanding what was going on with our 2e ds.
Best wishes,
polarbear
