Hi Jen,
Great to see you!
Can you fill us in on how things have been going since November?
Classroom behavior? Therapist? Home behavior? Found a medications that is working or given up entirely on that route?
Was there medication 'on board' for this testing?
How are things going socially? Does he have friends?
Do you have older testing numbers, if so, are they similar? (Pop 'em up)
How is school going 'academic fit' wise? Is he ahead of grade-level? Ahead of age peers? Is he enjoying reading?
What prompted the recent update?
Love and More Love,
Grinity
Hi Grin! I had to take a break from the site to preserve my sanity! Things are actually going pretty well. DS is doing well in school academically. He's at least on grade level and definitely well above grade level with reading and some other areas. Spelling, writing, and math (speed/memorization of facts) are difficult. He is doing just fine with math concepts; he just has the processing speed and working memory deficits slowing him down. Teacher/school not worried at all about academics.
Socially, there are still some minor issues, but nothing we are seriously worried about. DS is still impulsive and has lots of energy. Emotional control is much better but not where it should be. That said, it's rarely an issue at school anymore, and they do not see meltdowns at all. We rarely see them at home either, but we have seen an increase in "mouthiness" and arguing. That might just be his age; I'm not sure. Definitely, impulsivity and lack of focus are our main concerns. He is completing his work and responds really well to incentive systems.
His anxiety is well under control. He continues to get overstimulated in certain environments when there is lots of noise, lots of people, screaming kids, bright lights, etc. Birthday parties can be a challenge b/c he gets upset easily. He does better socially in a small group and with children a little older than he. On a very positive note, ds has made a friend at school who was admitted in January. They are best buds and spend lots of time together in and out of school. He is an amazingly bright, gentle, kind-hearted child, and he and his family have been a Godsend to us.
DS also has several other friends in the classroom who he gets together with after school. He attends church activities with a few of them, and they like having that in common. He has other friends who we know outside of the school setting, and he gets along just fine with them.
The school fit is good, not perfect, but what is? A gifted charter school is opening here in August, and we seriously considered sending ds there. In the end, we decided that consistency was more important than anything else. DS is learning to stand up for himself in a positive way, learning to adapt to others (instead of needing things his way), and maturing a great deal. The charter school only goes to 5th grade at this point, and we didn't want to move ds for 3 years and then have to move again. I think he'll do well staying where he is. They have actually hired an intern for next school year to be in the classroom helping implement accommodations and organizational systems for ds. I'm pretty sure a couple of other students, if not all of them, will benefit from this as well. This intern specializes in ADHD and autism spectrum disorders. She's a doctoral student.
The recent testing was conducted over the course of 4 days. Each day lasted 2 hours. He was tested on and off medication, and portions of each test were given on various days to get a cross sample of performance. That way, we can't blame results on "one bad day" or attribute good results to "one good day".
Prior testing was conducted at age 5. That was just the SB-V. Here are those results:
Full Scale IQ: 132
Nonverbal IQ: 119
Verbal IQ: 143
Fluid Reasoning: 138
Knowledge: 111
Quantitative Reasoning: 136
Visual Spatial: 132
Working Memory: 123
Nonverbal/Verbal Subtests:
Fluid Reasoning: 14/19
Knowledge: 10/14
Quantitative Reasoning: 14/19
Visual Spatial: 15/16
Working Memory: 12/16
Current medications: Ritalin instant release 10 mg 4X daily and Prozac 10 mg once daily. Long-acting extended release meds do not work for him due to increased anxiety. He is a fast metabolizer so no meds work for long. If we increase the instant release Ritalin even by 5 mg, ds becomes irritable, anxious, and easily frustrated. I think we are set at 10mg unless we add in some other med we haven't tried yet. For me, that's a last resort b/c he's doing quite well right now.
Thanks for any input you might have. It's tough to make sense of all of this. I'd like to think we paid a small fortune for something!
