Thanks all for your feedback. I'll try to address all your thoughts but it may take a couple of posts.The current school doesn't offer any testing (it's a private school and doesn't have to). His school last year refused to do any testing because he was not below grade level in anything. He had the speech-language eval through an independent speech pathologist and she used the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF-4), Test of Auditory Processing Skills (TAPS-3), Test of Pragmatic Language (TOPL-2, where he showed the weakest score, 86, with 18 Percentile rank), and Listening Comprehension. My DH and I filled out the Listening Inventory which is the behavioral observation rating and the Children's Auditory Performance Scale (CHAPS). We rated him in the "at risk" range in every category (frustrated parents or true insight?). Are either of these like the CSLI?
I talked to a couple of local people who diagnose Aspergers (recommended by the speech pathologist). Both of them do the full WISC and WIAT anyway. If I'm going to have to pay someone to do those, I might as well do the travel and have Dr. Amend do it.
Someone asked these questions:
How is your child athleticly? about average, he's tall and leggy and somewhat awkward but seems to have been helped by karate
Is he clumbsy, bumps into things no ?
Does he understand when someone is joking or does he think they are being mean sometimes he understands joking; sometimes he thinks people are being mean but more often he thinks they're being "unfair" ?
Did he teach himself how to read I started teaching him to read at about 3 3/4 yo because he was in tears because he didn't know what the words meant. I bought a book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and he had the concept after about 20 lessons. We still went through the book but he really could have done it on his own. I guess that means no but I think he could have. ?
How is he socially, does he make friends he dosen't make friends and has trouble fitting in with agemates (like at soccer or baseball), he makes up these long complex games that others can't follow, he seems to mostly be on the "outside" ?
And, you're right, Neato, my gut has bothered me with this for a long time. I guess one option would be to wait until we move and see if the new school district will do any of this testing. I'm guessing they won't but I will check. The thing about seeing Dr. Amend that appeals to me is that it's like "one-stop shopping". Maybe he could clear up a whole bunch of things and we wouldn't have to go here and there and hither and yon for this testing and that testing.
I'm rambling now and don't think I'm getting anywhere. My DH did agree to call Dr. Amend and talk to him to get a better understanding of why an assessment might be a good idea. Maybe that's a start and then we send him all our information and do the telephone consult and then decide. I got a book yesterday at the library about Asperger's, so maybe that will help me understand it and what the treatment or modifications are. I'll mull it over some more. More comments and thoughts are welcome. And, thanks, again.
