DD has been diagnosed with just about every conceivable LD. Prior neuropsych labeled her as "NLD-ish" but she totally lacks the social aspects of NLD. He said it was "a useful diagnostic concept" and "easier than saying super high verbal along with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, math disability, etc." This evaluator (recommended by the Eides) disagreed with NLD but labeled her with severe LD's in reading, written expression and math and thinks many of the problems are linked to dyslexia. Prior evaluator labeled ADHD-Inattentive, which we rejected. This one did not see any indication of ADD but said she suspected Sluggish Cognitive Tempo. Since it wasn't included in the DSM she couldn't make a formal diagnosis but suggested I educate myself about it.
DD has the processing speed of a tortoise - it's surprising that she made it as high as 2nd percentile. She is s-l-o-w at everything she does. Evaluator suggested getting her checked for CAPD and screened by an endocrinologist to see if there is some physical reason for her sluggishness. She also suffers from severe migraines and after a particularly awful cluster of them last year we reluctantly changed her meds to one that has known cognitive side effects. Her processing is so slow it was hard to tell if the med was impacting her but I am guessing that it is. It is effective at controlling the migraines, though, so it's really hard to risk a change.
DD had about 15 hours of testing so too many tests to list here. I can give specifics if I know what you think might help. Drop in high scores was explained as changes in the test using less of her areas of strength, more of her areas of weakness and probable drop in her already low processing speed because of the migraine med.
She is in out of district placement at a special Ed school. Last year, as a 3rd grader, she was placed in an 8th grade reading comprehension group (using audio books), which she found "painfully slow". In her 4th year of daily reading intervention she is now decoding at grade level. Writing is at a kindergarten level and she has been receiving 3 1/2 hours a week of OT trying to get her functional with Assistive Technology and improve her handwriting. She has no automaticity or fluidity. Relies almost entirely on context. Nonsense words, numbers, etc are just about impossible for her.
Is this what you were looking for? Thanks for any help you can offer.
