I first started bringing my concerns about DD's fine motor/ hand-eye coordination to our pediatrician when she was 18 months old and ped refused to make a referral for an OT eval until DD was 5. That was a 3 1/2 year delay. She knew immediately - and by immediately I mean by the time DD was a few weeks old - that DD was "exceptional" in many ways. She kept telling me "She's so far ahead of the curve things that are age appropriate appear to be deficits even when they're not." Turned out to be a big problem. When DD was having such an awful time at the terrible magnet school ped was no help. When DD had a concussion she refused to send us to a neurologist for an evaluation. So all in all not a lot of help there.
When we got the initial testing by the school district showing such significant issues our ped was on vacation. I spoke to someone else in her practice 3 times trying to get referral info for a neuropsych. The 40 point IQ difference was dramatic enough that even that doc who had never met DD wanted some further investigation. We also have a relative who is a pediatrician (and a friend of our ped which is how we came to work with her - making it very awkward to switch once I lost faith...) who looked at the paperwork and helped us decipher some of it. Ped did not call us once she was back from vacation but hit the roof when we provided her a copy of the neuropsych report we got a few months later that indicated suspicion of a seizure disorder. She called and reemed me out for "doing this on my own" and "leaving her out of the loop." How dare I????
I know there are some pediatricians who can be a great resource in all of this but don't count on it. After the neuropsych got us into the *leading* pediatric neurologist in the world our ped made us go see the local one "just to have someone local." It was a terrible experience - that doc really resented our wasting her time and of course felt that she would have been perfectly able to diagnose DD - seeing world renowned guy first apparently insulted her.
Ped is now on board somewhat but I am not comfortable with her anymore. We are stuck, though, because she has become a player in our dealings with the school. Changing would give the appearance of "doctor shopping" so we are staying put for the time being.
HTH
