About a month ago, we had our son evaluated. They performed the WISC-V, WIAT-III, Connors Performance Test, and an anxiety inventory. I posted about the scores
post here.
Yesterday we met to discuss the scores. On the CPT (Connors), which checks for inattentiveness, he had 6 atypical scores, which is more than half. He had slow response speeds and shows weaknesses in inattentiveness. He also quit toward the end of the test because it was frustrating to him.
On anxiety, he scored high in social anxiety, which would be questions like worrying about what others think about him, worrying about not doing things right, and shaking hands and pain in his chest at times. He's been seeing someone for anxiety for a while now.
On the WISC-V, he had a lower processing speed and had trouble repeating a series of numbers forward, but he could do it backward. He also was lower in picture reasoning, but I don't know what that means.
I asked several questions:
1. Could the low processing score indicate other factors involved in the score (I am surprised by them). He said yes.
2. Given his level of anxiety and the fact that he had expected to take the test with the neuropsych but ended up meeting someone new who tested him, could his anxiety have caused trouble. He said yes.
3. So this test may not be a valid indication? He said right.
He went on to tip toe around telling us he thought our son had ADHD because of the processing speeds and inattentiveness indicated on the CPT. He had us fill out an index as well. The psychologist he's been seeing for over a year does not believe he has ADHD. We've discussed it.
So I asked if he had heard of overexcitabilities (he's not well versed in gifted) and if he thought that may be part of what's going on here. He said yes and yes. And that we need more data.
He definitely discouraged us from saying anything to the school about the ADHD...it would put my child in a box. He encouraged us to work with his teacher to enhance his curriculum to see if that has any affect on behavior. According to achievement scores (again, other factors could be happening there as well), he said he's a minimum of one grade above where he's at, so he should have more challenging curriculum.
So my question is, does anyone have ideas or worked with a teacher to provide enhanced curriculum for a first grader? Any success in doing so?
Incidentally, his teacher this year seems much more receptive to thinking outside the box. His principal, however, not so much. Thank you.
