Sorry to step sideways OT here for just a moment, but I wanted to address master of none's comments:
I feel for you BlueMagic. We had to pay nearly 3K and still didn't get all the answers. A lot has to do with tester preference and bias. For example, I know my DS has dysgraphia and he has a diagnosis of disorder of written expression. But I think there's much more to it than that. I think there's a more global expressive problem and that written is actually a strength because he has time to form thoughts, etc. The kid can't keep up in a give and take situation orally. Yet, when I asked the psych (and this is a well known gifted and 2E tester), she said she'd look. She found nothing, and when I pushed, she told me that there really isn't a test for that. GRRRR. Should have asked an SLP. Lots of money just to confirm what I know.
So, friend referred to an SLP that is great with written expression. Evaled for listening and for pragmatic speech. No problem. How about my specific question about processing speech quickly and responding at a reasonable speed for conversational purposes? Apparently there isn't a test for that. GRRR. More wasted $$$. But since we have a diagnosis for dysgraphia, we can put any accommodations on our 504. That's how we deal with the communication issue.
I can so relate to what you've written here mon, because our dysgraphic ds also has this same issue with expressive language in situations that call for processing and responding to speech quickly - actually I'd say for my ds, rather than "quickly" even just a normal rate. Like you, our neuropsych didn't catch this at his initial eval where his dysgraphia was diagnosed, and it was only through random reading-of-the-Eides on my part combined with my slightly-older-ds giving me more info on what it felt like to be living in his head that I finally made the connection that hey, maybe we should consult with an SLP. In our case, we got lucky in terms of having a friend-connection with an SLP that led to an SLP who really was invested in helping our ds and went a bit outside the norm of what SLPs in our area typically see and treat. Sooo... I so empathize with the difficulty in identifying what the real issue is plus in trying to find the right professional to diagnose/remediated etc.
I can tell you that some of the things that our SLP did in formulating her treatment plan are related to dysgraphia - ds needed explicit instruction in various forms of communication, and he needed to repeat repeat repeat. He was really struggling in school for awhile with participating in class discussions because by the time he'd figured out what to say someone else had already blurted out an answer and the class had moved on. Working with the SLP on rapid responses and also just having to be involved in class discussions over and over again helped him get over that wall. He's had similar issues with other types of communication - things that seem like simple skills that come naturally to most kids, but for him he needs to be taught exactly what is expected and repeat repeat repeat. It's all tied up in the challenge with automaticity. This summer we're working on how to make a phone call. Successfully. Picture me banging my head against the proverbial wall.
OK, sorry I rambled without focus. It's just very difficult sometimes to find help for 2e kids.
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polarbear
