Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment K-ABC Test results...

I should add that my DD's KABC scores also had a large span in the "short term memory" area from all the other categories, and the psychologist who tested her, her current school and a couple of doctors I have spoken to don't see it as a problem since the short term retrieval is "high average" at 79th percentile. She does what polarbear describes for her DD8.

She's getting updated tests over these few weeks so we'll see where it leads.

My DD's never been diagnosed with anything because though she's obviously different she eeks along, nothing rash. I wouldn't really feel good about the "emotional disturbance" diagnosis when a child is so different from the others in the environment. And not taking a real close look at what that short term memory difference can mean to a child.

It makes it seem like there is something inherently wrong with the child but really they're suffering from a poor fit and are acting upon how that feels to them day after day...

The therapeutic riding is a good fit for my DD but I can see that if a child isn't thrilled with horses to begin with, it might be counter-productive...better to start at a strength of theirs than adding more stress!

FWIW I'm posting this here, about Twice-Exceptional.

I don't have an opinion on it, it just came in the LD online e-mail.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/08/30gifted.h31.html?tkn=WXOFio5f0hJXppiuyCS%2FnVsN9oRNid4nF6wB&cmp=clp-edweek&utm_source=fb&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mrss

Do you think I should create a new post in the 2E thread also?

@aculady - DS is the same was regarding eye contact. He *can* but it seems like an effort for him. If I don't prompt him to look at me, he will actively avoid looking at my face... especially if he is upset, or believes he's being lectured/punished/corrected. I could also "ditto" everything you said about the friends... DS appears to now have kids he plays with at recess, and sits with at lunch without any teasing or fighting. I've only heard 2 kids names (and one it was phrased like "so-and-so is being nice to me now!") and he's not been invited to any parties, playdates or anything outside school since kindergarten. The only kids he plays with outside of school are his cousins, and rarely the 4th grade boy who lives a couple of houses down.

My assumption on the whole asperger's thing with the neuropsych is that if the school accepts and asperger's or autism spectrum diagnosis the kids are automatically required to receive a whole list of services (as require by state law) - I can see how a cash-strapped school would want to push back on asperger's diagnoses specifically because it's such a borderline-type of call. I would imagine other parents, being aware of the issue with getting services through the school sought out a neuropsych.. and this one we are seeing just so happens to be the only one in the entire county!

@DeeDee This is so good to know!!! DH and I are both leery of the ED label and it following him through his school career.

@polarbear - We haven't met with the diagnostician who did the testing yet. She just forwarded her report to us. I will certainly ask her about the scatter when we get to meet with her. I wondered about the memory score myself. And I didn't figure my kid was off the charts or anything, it kind of made me laugh to hear how the school psych acted about the scores.. like 'omg! he's the smartest kid in the school probably.' From that I can tell his score (if we accept that K-ABC is a valid measure of g) has a rarity of about 1/600. Clearly he's a bright kid who learns fast, but he's not exactly one in a million here, either.

Thank you guys so much! I'm going to be reading the wrightslaw page quite a bit between now and the 17th!

No, diagnosis does not determine services. There should be a detailed process of evaluation that determines your DS's educational needs, and then for each need a strategy is determined to address that need. You should make very sure all the needs are identified during the school's eval and written in their report, as without that documentation you can't get the services.


Except often it isn't. I hope your neuropsych will do the ADOS-- there really are standardized tests that identify autism traits.


I am not actually usually leery of labels, or the "following through school career" thing. A label is sometimes helpful in spelling out what the challenge is and why-- it helps teachers and school staff understand what they are dealing with, and helps you know what you are working on and why it's hard. Knowing the true name for a challenge is better than not knowing.

Here my real concern is that an incorrectly applied label can cause new problems. Everything you've said about your DS sounds more like AS than like ED to me; if I'm wrong (internet diagnosis is worth zero) and he's ED, you'll get him the help he needs, but you definitely want to know what you're dealing with (correct label) before you start making major treatment and placement decisions.

DeeDee