Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Regrets or doubts on getting assessment/eval/dx?

Tics must persist for a minimum of a year and include physcial and vocal tics of some sort. IDing involves more of a process of elimination. I went to the tourette syndrome assocation site TSA. Yes most kids tic at some point especially boys. It is the duration of events that matter

GM5 -
Huston is a major metropolitan area - by the numbers there should be someone who would have enough experience. Post over on the regions part of the forum and let's see if anyone has any reccomendations, ok?

Grinity

Grinity - I'll try posting in regions - thanks. You would think there would be someone in a big city like Houston but finding that person is harder than it should be.

My DS 7 was dx with TS in Sept of last year. He has had vocal and motor tics since we can remember. He makes an eeee noise and grimaces, he shrugs his shoulders and clears his throat, he jumps and flaps when he gets excited, and he spins and spins and spins. Looks a lot like ADHD behaviors but they are all common TS tics. He does have ADHD and OCD and is highly gifted. The TSA website is a great source of information. I'm here if you have any questions.
Becky

Good Luck!

The thing with any assessment-- gifted, Asperger's, dyspraxia, crooked feet-- is that it's just a tool. Optimally, it's a tool to get little Isabella what she needs, and not a tool with which to beat her to death (though it could be either, IME). It doesn't define the kid it's affixed to, it doesn't even particularly explain much, because our kids are so much more than just a diagnosis or a test score (or even the sum of all the parts).
Right now, both the diagnosis and the gifted label are kind of on hold because we homeschool. My dd's being taught in a setting tailored to her, just like her neurotypical twin. She's not receiving services (for a lot of reasons, many better left unenumerated) and is just one of the pack ("the one who draws really cool cartoons") at our co-op. The only thing the labels are used for at this point are email lists. She'd be just as bright and just as goofy even if we'd never pursued the labels, so they're of limited value, IMO, though that may be subject to change in the future.

I didn't realize until yesterday how my son really felt about all of the recent doctor visits and assessments until yesterday at the base clinic where we went hoping to get treatment for what we think might be migraine headaches. After three heart rate and blood pressure readings were high, even though they kept telling him to relax, the military doctor finally asked him why he was so nervous. I could easily see why he might be nervous. The doctor looked intimidating even to me in her military uniform. She made no attempt to make my son feel at ease. She didn't take the time to tell him what she was going to do before she did it and when my son nervously asked what she was going to do next a few times, she seemed irritated with him and said she was the doctor and he needed to be quiet and do what she told him to do. He wasn't refusing to do anything, he just wanted to know. I am the same way and I have always told him he has the right to ask questions and he has the right to know what the doctor is going to do to his body.

He told her the reason he was nervous was that it seemed like every time he went to the doctor they wanted to diagnose him with something else. He said he didn't mind going to the dentist (she takes time to talk to him and put him at ease before she does anything) but he also said he thinks he might have a problem with anesthesia working on him as well as it does other people because when the dentist started working on his teeth the last time it still hurt a little. He joked that maybe the dentist had given him a placebo and then he said it ended up being a.... When he couldn't think of the word, he asked me what the opposite of placebo was and when I couldn't think of it, the doctor said there wasn't one and seemed irritated that he even brought it up. Of course we looked it up at home and the word he was thinking of was "nocebo" but the doctor didn't know what he was talking about so that felt awkward and it just added to the unpleasantness of the visit.

We now have to go to a neurologist to diagnose the headache problem and the doctor thinks he should see a psychologist or psychiatrist about the doctor anxiety. So he has to see another doctor because he has anxiety about seeing doctors.

I asked if she thought the anxiety might be understandable considering the last time he saw her she told him he had scoliosis and he ended up having to wear a painful brace that he will have to wear until he is at least 16 years old and then the orthopedic surgeon who has even less bedside manner than she does described the operation requiring steel rods inserted in his back if the bracing didn't work. She couldn't say, our time was up.

Just as an aside, I've worked as a nurse therapist for ages-- in hopsitals altogether since the mid-seventies-- and I don't recall hearing the word "nocebo" used either.

That having been said, I'll second Cricket. If there's any remotely decent alternative to Dr. Personality, I'd check it out. Your son shouldn't have to deal with that, and neither should you.

Thanks everyone for your input on this subject! If anyone else comes across this post, I'd love to hear more stories about how:
1. You were on the fence about gettng a dx and very glad you did
2. You were on the fence about getting a dx and wish you hadn't
3. You are on the fence and choose not to get evaluated bc quirkiness isn't affecting much.
4. You feel your kid got a wrong dx.

Thanks!

1.

Actually we weren't going to get one, since she didn't have any issues at all.

The teacher encouraged us to get one so we can understand our child better. So eventually we did. And we were totally shocked by the results. We really couldn't have guessed how well DC did. We just kept thinking DC was bright, that's all. Heheh...