Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment good test for 2.8 year old?

Both of the boys did the hand guiding. The younger one more than the older one. But at least he's now trying to communicate with me more. Before I couldn't tell what he needs or wants. Now he's learned to grab my hands and drag me where he wants me (if he can't tell my verbally what he needs). Neither one of them can 'point' to things / directions. Just like neither one can tell where I'm pointing. (The older one has been giving me directions according to the GPS in the car since he turned 3 but can't find anything when point to it! ugh! lol) ... so, yes, I definitely have reasons for concern.

Mk, back to your original question re "good test for a 2.8 year old"... fwiw, my dd went through EI screening, and the way it works where we live is that you don't have a choice about the test - you get what they give and that's what every child gets. We have first a very general screening which includes a cognitive screening as well as motor (fine and gross), hearing, speech, vision. Then if your child scores *low* enough in any of the categories they are referred on for a more thorough eval in the area of concern (low functioning). They are also (in my area) *not* screening for giftedness, so if you were here, and your child was anywhere from low average to profoundly gifted in cognitive ability, the only testing he/she would qualify for is the initial screening, which amounts to about 5 minutes of answering some very basic questions - not anything that would delineate where your child's IQ lies, just enough of a screen to let you know whether or not there was significant issue.

polarbear

he is already getting EI therapies (OT, DT and ST) He easily qualified for all the EI therapies because he wouldn't cooperate with the evaluation team at all. At the same time even they noted that he wasn't an easy case and that all the results for him were really off and that we can't really go by them. ... the evaluation he has on Thursday is actual developmental therapist/psychiatrist/or whoever on the team that specializes in Autism down at one of the Chicago's hospitals. So it should be real diagnostic screening.

I hope they'll not only go by what they'll see on Thursday but also by videos that I have recorded so they get a better picture of him.

My son was also taking me to what it was he wanted until he recently started saying wanna eat or wanna drink, and open or help. He still hands me things he wants sometimes, and he won't point to something if I'm asking him to let me know what he wants, although he does point at things to tell me about them sometimes.

I also took videos, and examples of his drawings but it didn't make much difference sadly. I'm hoping that our repeat assessment right before he turns 3 will be more fruitful.

I wasn't very happy with the answers we got for DS4 at Lurie at the Pedi Psych dept so we're on a waiting list to get more testing done through their developmental specialist. Did you go through the developmental dept directly or through Psychiatry? The evaluation we're doing Thursday is through Advocate Mesonic Developmental Center so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

One thing I wanted to point out... the diagnosis doesn't change from Autism/PDD-NOS to Asperger's just because the child begins speaking. I would be willing to be your child probably still has a large pragmatic speech delay, like nearly all children with Autism/PDD-NOS who do fine with functional speech. A pragmatic speech delay is still a serious issue, and causes my son no end of trouble with school and friends. (I've been on the hunt for an SLP for him for ages now!)

oh, he only got the PDD-NOS diagnosis couple months ago and has been speaking really well the last year and half. I even had him evaluated by private Speech Therapist and she didn't find any issues other than noted his vocab and way of speaking is way beyond his years. The Psych eval was done by an intern (granted a really nice one who did put a lot of effort into things) so I have my reservations and even she agreed we need to go on further to developmental specialist to find out where exactly on the spectrum he is as this lady couldn't diagnose anything beyond PDD-NOS (and that was mainly for school purposes). Anything I've ever read about Asperger's ... it's 90% my older son ... anything I've read about PDD-NOS matches maybe 50% but probably not even that)

... now, as for the younger one, PDD-NOS wouldn't surprise me at all!

Looks like we will have to reschedule the appointment. After all the waiting, DS2 has the flu now! Even if he didn't have anymore fever tomorrow, he's still super irritable and out of it so the appointment would probably turn into a total disaster tomorrow. So I'm waiting for them to call me back to get a new appointment

It was Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics. We decided to wait and see how things progress before going for more testing.

Wow, I lived what you are going through. My son was reading by the time he turned 2. He was obsessed with letters and numbers....it would take us forever to walk through a parking lot because he needed to obsess over every license plate. His speech therapist picked up on it before we did and mentioned hyperlexia. It is my understanding that hyperlexia is not a medical diagnosis, but if you google it, you will find a lot of info about kids like your son and give you ideas about ways to work with him and what his future challenges may be (so you can work on them).

My son is now 10 and doing well. My advice to you is to focus on the delays and issues that your child is dealing with now. I know it is hard to ignore the genius qualities that he is showing, but if he is a genius, he will remain a genius. Kids that read extremely early tend to have a lot of communication and social issues. Many of these issues can be worked out if the child is worked with at an early age. I feel so fortunate that we were involved with Early Intervention (also in Illinois) and my son did 2 years at our District's preschool(Dist. 204) with an IEP because he had a lot of autism red flags and was "at risk". His speech therapy consisted of teaching him how to handle himself in social situations. For example, the speech therapist would sit next to him at snack time and coach him to ask his friends what their snack was, or what cartoon they liked, etc. That therapy, at age 3, was so valuable in teaching him skills that he will need to be a well-rounded person. I often think about what kind of issues we would have with him now if he had not had those opportunities when he was so little.

The rest of the story is that my son dropped his IEP when he started kindergarten and he tested into gifted in 3rd grade. I still see his quirkiness now and then, but nobody else really sees it. He is social, has friends, loves school, does really well in school and is HAPPY!

Please don't ignore the delays and issues that your son is experiencing. Therapy and school does help and will actually open his world more by making him develop areas that are not natural to him. The genius in him can be developed when it is more age appropriate, but these life/people skills that he is probably lacking have a small window and should be developed asap.

Good luck!!

Kelly

Back with an update ... had the developmental screening today. The official diagnosis is High functioning autism with very high intelligence. I was very happy with the evaluation team so no complains really. The main developmental pediatrician picked up on DS's "smarts" right away (he was watching from behind a mirror wall). He did say that our major issue is communication / social interaction and if we can overcome that, he should be advancing fast at school.
What I'm not so happy / sure about is the overall recommendation by the whole team for our little guy being placed in an actual preschool classroom for kids with Autism (mainly to learn the different communication skills). Our district also has an option (from what I've heard) of having kids on the spectrum put in a "regular" special ed class (like my 4-year old is in) and have an aid provided for him to work with him one-on-one while he's in the class. I'm sure the all-autistic class is great! ... I just don't think it would be a match for our child. But this is all just a recommendation. A lot will depend on the special ed school district evaluation sometime next month before he turns 3. They also recommended we continue with all the therapies and to add ABA therapy on top of it all. ... at this point I'm feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it!

So, here I am ... with a diagnosis ... and right now have ZERO idea of what we'll do!

BBBb ... I have read a little about hyperlexia and am still keeping it at the back of my mind.

Overall, I do think a lot will depend on how his speech will be developing from now on. If it takes off just before he turns 3 like it did with my older one (pretty much overnight) ... or if he'll continue being not very communicative thought having huge vocabulary (his favorite thing right now is going through a dictionary that's a part of his Leappad eBook and learning to read words like "appointment" "incredible" "scrumptious"! lol). they want use to come back again for re-evaluation in 9-12 months to see where he's at with his communication skills then.