Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment So what happened at your kid's assessment?

I feel like I should give more information. These less-than-desirable traits are pretty much only ever exhibited at home (I can count on one hand the number of times someone other than me has witnessed this). I can't say that it all is completely disruptive to normal life, but I had always thought the screaming/crying fits would be over with by now. And the bad times seem to come in waves. We can go weeks with freak-outs only happening 1-2x in a week, and then we go a few days where it's <10x a day.

We're feeling a bit stuck with where to look for coping tools to navigate the above listed traits. But maybe it's all within an average range of acceptable? A full neuropsych evaluation maybe seems overkill, and I don't know that just an IQ test would offer enough insight...? Perhaps a counselor/therapist is more appropriate without any evaluations? We're in the middle of one of those stretches of bad days and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Thanks for of you all of your insight so far, you all are great.

Although I agree that it is a good sign that the behaviors rarely occur outside the home, I would still be a bit concerned about cyclical episodes of 10+/day for a few days in a row. Even if it turns out to be sub-clinical, whatever is going on still affects your home, your relationship with your child, and your child's perception of himself (since he clearly knows this is not expected behavior in general).

I would also agree that a naked IQ test would not answer the primary questions you are asking. I do not, however, think that a neuropsych would be overkill. Regardless of the specific data, you will receive valuable normative and clinical information about your child. If the outcome is simply that this is within normal limits, and you should just keep doing what you're doing, and wait for him to solve this developmental problem on his own, then that should relieve some anxiety, which certainly has value. If the outcome is that something should change about his setting or interventions, then knowing this sooner than later can spare him and you quite a bit of future distress.

ITA with everything aeh said - I'd pursue the neurospych eval. There's also something else I'd recommend, since the behaviors of concern are happening at home, but not happening consistently - keep a journal of when they happen, and include what your child was doing before they occur, where he is, what he's eaten recently, etc. It's possible that over time you'll find a pattern that either gives a clue to what's causing them or will at least give a clue to how to manage them.

I also wanted to add - I was primarily talking about my 2e ds above in my first reply, but now that you've mentioned the behaviors primarily happening at home I'll tell a little bit about my 2e dd. She's the ultimate tantrum kid - has meltdowns like you wouldn't believe, and that went on for years past the toddler typical meltdown years - at home. She's an angel in public - we get reports about what an amazingly well-behaved child she is *all* *the* *time*. Left dh and I wondering (often) if the person talking to us wasn't mistaking us for some other child's parents lol. The same dd was an academic star the first few years of elementary school, then her reading progress stalled out, first falling to grade level and then falling below grade level. We found out via an educational eval that she has a challenge with associative memory, and we eventually realized that her tantrums often happened at times when she appeared to have a memory glitch. The remarkable thing was, she continued to be able to hold it together at school and outside our home - but it wasn't for an admirable or good reason, it was because she was so caught up in not wanting anyone else in the world to realize she was struggling.

Best wishes,

polarbear