Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Private testing vs pushing school to do it

So, today the private psych I went to said that I CAN ask the school to do a FULL IEP evaluation which will include some IQ testing and learning disability. But I can only choose for EITHER the school or the private tester, that you can only test once a year.

The only POSSIBLE pro for the school testing, that I can see, is it wouldn't cost us any money. It may not be in depth enough, results could be skewed based on the tester and my child's repoire with the tester...plus, the private psych can help us navigate enrichment options and has experience with them, with a 2e DD herself. Plus, if it IS ADHD, I would be more likely to trust her to prescribe, etc...

I just know it's going to be painful and I will have to justify it to DH, though I think he's on board...can I get some reassurance that it is INDEED better to have the private dr do it and the expense will be worth the money...

I would pay the money, if you can, and go for the private testing. Often, what you get from the school is not that great and you can't re-test within a year then on those tests.

Theoretically, the school might have more 'buy in' if they did the test themselves. Of course if they messed it up, then it's a worse problem.

The school can't do enough testing to confirm an ADHD diagnosis, so you'll be at the privte tester sooner or later.

With DH, explain to them that an IQ test given from the school tester isn't as definitive as the same test given by a Licenced Psychologist. There is a link to an article explaining this - can someone find it? I think it's from Hoagies. If your situation was straight forward, then sure let the school test, but if ADHD is a potential issue, you really would get a whole lot more out of the process if the Educational Psychologist does it.

It might also be helpful to consider that if the Ed Psyc does the testing her or himself, that they use the experience of testing the child as a way to observe the child under 'working conditions.' This can be very insightful. (It can also be misleading, as in our case, anyone seeing my son thriving on one-to-one adult attention and thriving on challenging learning situations might underinterpret the extent of his imparement from ADHD-I. We just happen to have a kid who loves the experience of taking IQ tests. shrug)
Hope that helps -
Grinity

When my DS was evaluated by the school psych (who I actually really liked) for a grade skip, she did the WJ cognitive and a few of the WJ achievement tests and we had a very short meeting to discuss it. She never spoke to us prior to administering the test for any background information nor did she complete any kind of developmental history. She did speak to his 1st grade teacher. The report was two pages which included a page of scores and her conclusion that he was well above average and advice that if he was to be grade skipped, we should make sure he was exposed to kids his own age (which did not really apply to us because his birthday is 36 days after the cutoff). It was fine for what it was and what it was used for.

Conversely, when we had him tested for entrance into a highly gifted program, we hired a neuropsychologist and she administered the WISC and she is now doing an assessment for ADD. I really wanted the more comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation done and I just don�t think you can get that from the school psych. The neuropsych has already spent a lot of time with us and I feel like she is one of our partners in figuring out the best educational fit and accommodations for my DS.

If your insurance will cover it or you can afford it, I would highly recommend private testing. Usually the level of expertise, experience testing, and student-load is much more in your favor in the private setting, so you're likely to get more feedback and better results. This was certainly the case for us.

insurance coverage does not seem to be an option at this time, but I think Grinity says it best, esp in regards to the ADHD dx the ped wanted to push on us. We sure do not have extra money to spend like this, but I will find a whole heck of a lot of things to do without if I have to, to get the answers we need, I think.

and again, she has the whole advocacy and familiarity with DYS, EPGY, CTY, etc and can help us if we choose to go that route...

she said she would give us the EF questionaires too, but I want to read that book about EF first before we add that test too...she actually thinks that in about 2020, ADHD will actually be moved to a group of disorders that will be subsets of EF dysfunctions...interesting yes?

thanks for the inputs

MY HUSBAND IS AWESOME! Sorry to yell, but, like I said, it's not like we have a lot of extra money laying around and I'm so happy that DH and I are on the same page about how important this is!
and thanks to everyone for your advice!

Great news, 2giftgirls!

We have a 2E daughter and "went private." It was a fantastic decision. The depth of expertise of the tester and the richness of the insights have made every penny spent worth it.

Best wishes!

Great News! Your tester sounds wonderful. PM me with the details and a review for my files, ok?
Smiles,
Grinity

Talking to two PG kids' parents, they were both adamant about not doing public testing. They both had public testing when their kids were young and the school used parts of the test to argue against what they thought was best. Both later paid for private testing and the outcome was much better.

As for payment for services, a lot of practices will let you negotiate for payment plans.