Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Identifying which (if any) LD a child has?

I'm in a strange place, and I could use a little direction regarding DS5 (nearly 6).

I'm pretty sure that he has 2E issues going on. I could be wrong, but his early testing by the school looks weird and doesn't reflect what other parents of gifted kids see when they look at him. (So it's not just me hoping to see something that's not there. The kid is testing at bright-to-MG, but he adds mixed fractions in his head even though no one taught him that. His math achievement scores weren't even in the gifted range.)

I feel in my mom-gut that something is wonky here. Visual issues or CAPD seem the most likely candidates, but their symptoms aren't even similar! Could he have both?

Honestly, I have no idea where to go from here. How do I figure out what the problem is? (Knowing full well that it could be something that I haven't even considered.)

Is there a one-stop shop for diagnosing LDs? How do I tease apart what is relevant from what is not, preferably without spending a fortune? We have a good relationship with a psychologist whom I had planned to have test him, as she tested his older brother. Is that my next step? Can she figure out what is going on, or is there somewhere else we should start first?

Any help would be appreciated. I'm feeling completely lost and useless to him.

Kriston,

You have given me such helpful advice here that I wish I had good information for you. I would hope that the pyschologist would be able to at the very least advise you on where to find the answers even if it is not with her. The school is testing DD7 to help me determine what is going on with her as I suspect some type of LD but her "symptoms" don't fit any one category.

I know one thing, your DS has a great and skilled advocate in you and you will make sure it all gets figured out.

Hope it is not too lengthy or expensive a process and it all gets uncovered.

Aw, thanks, Breakaway4. I really appreciate your kind words.

I just wonder if the bleah test results we got are an indication that testing isn't going to tell us much of anything right now.

The whole 2E thing is such a puzzle, isn't it? *sigh*

Please let me know what you find with your DD7 and the path you take. I read these 2E threads quite religiously these days...

Well so far they have only done achievement (WJIII) and I was present during testing. THAT was an eye opener. We still have a few more test for that since 45 minutes was the max she would/could cooperate.

1) She does not want to do it and gives up on items I know she knows.

2) She totally failed a section where you had to repeat an oral story. She said she couldn't remember even the simplest story. (I have been suspecting APD, is this a sign?)

3) She doesn't listen to directions and squirmed in her seat and avoided looking at the tester. (note: She is not shy and LIKES the teacher doing the testing)

4) She was really great at a section on pictures - and it seemed her visual skills overrode her poor listening/AP issues quite a bit - perhaps having the picture helped her visualize the directions e.g. First point to the biggest bear and then the bird in the tree but not if there is a rabbit near the picnic table etc.

All of it made me feel like there is more going on than I even suspected.

Keep me updated as well. Nice to have company along with the mystery. :-)

Breakaway

In my utterly unskilled and mostly clueless opinion, that seems like it might be CAPD. But like I said, what the heck do I know? The testing seems useful to you though, it sounds like? That's useful info to me, since I really am wondering if testing is even worth doing right now.

It's nice that you got to be present for the test. I was not, so I know zilch.

Kriston, I can recommend the full 'psychoeducational' assessment sort of route which we went with ds to determine what, if any, lds he had going on. This was close to $3000 but about 1/2 was paid by insurance as we were not just seeking iq/achievement info but help diagnosing an ld.
I think our dr was extremely thorough and did a good job pinpointing, as much as possible in this day and age, what is up with ds and, more to the point, what he needed in terms of therapy.

Best of luck getting this figured out~

Thanks for chiming in, guys. I appreciate the help!

Dottie: I'm jumping the gun a bit, which is why I didn't post scores. I have not yet seen the scores. The GT coordinator just called me quickly, so I have literally 3 numbers, one of which is the CoGAT score (which I frankly consider to be useless). I'm not even positive what they used for the achievement test. When DS8 was tested 3 years ago, it was the WJ-III, but I don't know if that's true anymore, and she just told me percentiles--no real data. None of it is at all useful yet, except to say that his reading score was higher than his math. That's clearly nonsense!

I'm not hung up on these scores, and I'm definitely not upset or anything. If he really were bright-to-MG, I would be ECSTATIC! But I don't think that fits. It just doesn't ring true. Something is wonky.

I suspect--and I have no real evidence for this other than my knowledge of my child--that in math he said that he can't do subtraction, so she stopped testing. Well, he CAN do subtraction, but it's not as breezy for him as, um, multiplication or adding fractions! Doh! So I'm betting the tester quit too soon. *sigh* But if that's the case I don't know if I'll be able to see it. This was the free testing done by the school. We don't get much of a paper trail...

I just feel very strongly that that this is further evidence that something isn't right here, you know? Now I need to figure out my next step.

I would love to treat the symptoms. I think that's great advice. But they're so nebulous, so vague. I feel like I see everything through half-closed eyes. What's normal? What's goofy, but not a real problem? What's a bonafide symptom? Where's the line between a bright kid and an HG+ one that has serious problems keeping him from succeeding as he could?

I have no idea right now.

BTW: It's APD? Not CAPD? See, I don't even know the current terminology! Gah!

Thanks, Chris. I'll take that under advisement. It really helped you?

The insurance note is helpful. I don't think our usual psychologist accepts insurance, but I'll be sure to ask. That might make a difference.

No Peripheral APD? LOL! Makes sense.

Here's how messed up I am: I read the Eide book a year ago and I was more lost after than I was before. Nothing jumped out, but I saw lots of symptoms of lots of things. For a good long while after that, I convinced myself that he was just a bright kid and I was crazy, looking for trouble--both in GTness that he didn't have and LDs he didn't have.

Then he did more out-there math and picked up chess like it was nothing, beating his dad, and my mom-gut started in on me again that something just didn't make sense.

I think he's VERY visual-spatial, so I suspect that might be clouding the issue. If he's VS and has visual issues so that he can't see things well, that might explain a lot. If he has some form of APD, too, well, that could cover pretty much everything I see.

But that's a lot. I worry that I'm hearing hoofbeats and thinking zebra instead of horse.

Augh! My brain hurts...

Hi Kriston! I'm following you over here today! I was totally confused about Eide's book or maybe just overwhelmed. I was looking for info for DS last year and came up having questions about his sister. 1)She's related to him 2)She had the early verbal milestones 3) She is WAY more intense 4)She is very VS, difficulty with math computation and spelling but strong reading, writing and drawing skills. 5) She had chronic fluid in her ears until 4 and has some hearing loss. At some point, she will have an evaluation as well. With DS our insurance covered most of the psychologist educational eval but the Eides, for a neuropsych eval, in our area were quite expensive.The psych eval could be a screener eval. I say trust your instinct, at this point, you're quite educated in assessing learning needs.