Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Timing for Neuropsych testing?

Hello,

Our son, now in 5th grade, was last fully evaluated in first grade. At that time, they highlighted processing speed issues, visual/spatial challenges, motor skills, etc. They suggested diagnoses of dysgraphia and NVLD, but didn't want to confirm it so young. (Also, a neuropsychologist wasn't part of the testing team.) Since then DS has worked with OT, vision therapy, social skills groups, etc. Many issues have improved, of course, but not gone away.

We've heard from friends that having neuropsych evaluation, with an official diagnosis, was very helpful in conversations with schools, focusing interventions, and even in getting some costs covered relating to insurance, or at least a deduction on taxes. Also, now that our son is getting older, we feel it is important to bring him more directly into the conversation to strategize about how he learns, so that he can better understand himself and self-advocate.

At what point did others do this testing for their 2e children? And how often? If we apply to private high schools, do they require the testing to be done within a specified timeframe?

Our insurance doesn't cover the testing, so it will be out-of-pocket. Basically, we had enough info from the earlier eval to guide the interventions up to this point, so we put our funds into the support. We'd like to update the testing now, but are worried that we'll have to then pay for it again right before high school. Any thoughts?

Many thanks!!

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I would the sooner the better. And, FYI, there are not a whole lot of neuropsychs out there, so they often have very long waiting lists - call and get on the list now!

The ideal situation is that you figure out what your child needs NOW, so that by the time H.S. rolls around you are already on a good track and can just keep moving forward.

All of this private, or also through school? How is school going? Are any accommodations made for the various issues? How great is the impact of the challenges on school life, both socially and academically?


Many private high schools will not make significant accommodations or provide services to remediate disabilities. I'd look into it before shelling out money.


Has he been evaluated by your local school district? They would do IQ and achievement testing as well as looking into any educational needs. They are required to evaluate if you make the request; it would be a free way to get it done.

Our family's general process is that we test when there's a need for the information, and not otherwise.

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts. Regarding the questions,

- He has a 504 plan that allows accommodations such as using a keyboard for writing anything that involves full sentences and extra time on tests.

- We have moved since the initial testing, and the current school district used the previous eval to set up the 504. I don't think they will be persuaded to incur the cost of testing themselves unless he is almost failing.

- We are interested in the testing a) to make sure that we are working on the right things as we move into middle school years, b) to make sure that we've identified the right accommodations, and c) since what we have in the past isn't a formal diagnosis, it makes support services difficult to get covered by insurance.

Hmmmm...to be within 5 years of the SATs would mean 8th grade, which would be three years from now. Kids change so much. Three more years feels like a long time to be "coasting" on strategies from data that is already five years old.

How often have people had this testing done during the child's school career? Did the results change in a way that changed your support strategies or accommodations?

The rule of thumb in ESE is re-evaluate every three years...but only in areas you have questions about or need more information about.


Just as an example--- So if you have an IQ from three years ago done with a widely respected instrument and everyone agrees it is pretty much accurate for what they see day to day, then why redo it...but if many people think an updated evaluation from the OT might be helpful then go for it. The reevaluation committee, parent included, for a student meets and discusses and develops the list of areas that need assessment and then parent consents.

I am not sure about re-evaluating for 504 plans.

cb, our dysgraphic/dyspraxic ds was originally diagnosed by a neuropsych in 2nd grade, and we repeated the testing in 5th grade for the reasons you listed as a) and b) above and the eval was invaluable to us for those two reasons (our neuropsych had also recommended testing again in 3 years after ds' first eval). We didn't have to deal with c) (lack of a diagnosis) because ds had that, but if he *hadn't* had his diagnosis, advocating in our school district would have been much much tougher than it was (and it wasn't easy!). One thing that we also got from the testing that we hadn't anticipated was ds' voice in it - he was old enough at 11 to be interviewed by the neuropsych, to complete his own behavior questionnaire (can't remember exactly what it was called), and to be interested in understanding what the tests looked at and what the results meant in terms of his challenges and strengths.

The other thing that happened was, even though he already had diagnoses, there were nuances to those diagnoses that became much clearer when the neuropsych was able to look back over three years of academic work with accommodations in place - so the actual reality of his challenges became clearer. There had been advances in technology since his first neuropsych so we received update AT advice. We were able to get current thoughts on middle school situations in our district that would be a best-fit for ds, and we were able to ask questions we had about the impact of his diagnoses as he headed into puberty and the teen years - things that weren't even on our radar three years earlier It's also been helpful to us in advocating to have the additional testing because the IQ testing *is* essentially the same as the first go-round, which is an added data point that can be used whenever anyone at school questioned the validity of the original testing.

So, for us, having a reveal just before the start of middle school was very helpful.


It's ok to apply for SAT accommodations before you sign up to take the test - in fact, it can take some time to get the accommodations granted, so our tactic was to use the 5th grade testing as the documentation we used to apply for college boards. The neuropsych diagnostic testing is considered valid for three years from what I recollect from the college board website (I could be remembering it incorrectly).


So far we've done the testing twice (2nd and 5th grade), and that's all I see needed (unless either the ACT or SAT folks require further testing :D). The actual numbers on the individual test results didn't change dramatically, but the support strategies and accommodations *did* and the clarity from a second round of testing was extremely helpful.

FWIW, and this may vary depending on your school district - our school will re-evaluate every three years so it's possible to get the IQ vs ability testing for free through the school district. The downside to that, from our experience, is that we didn't get the added insight into the reasons behind IQ vs ability discrepancies etc, and our ds didn't have any follow-up testing to determine *why* he had discrepancies in scores etc... so had we relied on the school district for testing (either initial or follow-up) we would have had a much less clear understanding of what our ds' challenges were, we would not have had an actual diagnosis, and we most likely would not have had a good understanding of the remediation and accommodations that have worked the best for him.

Best wishes as you decide what to do,

polarbear

A re-eval isn't necessary for renewing a 504 in our school district.

polarbear