Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Identifying which (if any) LD a child has?

I'm homeschooling him next year. It's not a problem for us. But I'm not seeking a label so much as trying to figure out if something is going on here.

I'd prefer that this conversation not turn into a "don't label your kids" conversation. If you're interested in having that conversation, could we do it on another thread, please? It's a valid and worthwhile discussion, but it is not helpful to me. And I really need help! Thanks!

Kriston, I'm right there in the trenches with you as well.

I've long suspected possible dyslexia issues and/or CAPD issues for DS11. We do think he has ADHD-inattentive type and are medicating for that, but we're still not entirely convinced. He has a long history of ear infections and has specifically mentioned that all the sounds in the classroom are at the same level and that that makes it hard to concentrate. He also seems to have problems pulling words from his head when he's speaking. I thought the part of the Rosie article about hearing similar words the same way was interesting and I'm going to ask DS about this. When he was a baby he would leave off consonants entirely and I always had the feeling that he didn't really hear the consonants eventhough his hearing tests came back normal. (He only started using consonants at about age 2.5 when he started watching Between the Lions with it's emphasis on phonics.) We had the visual convergence and tracking issues as well and did vision therapy, which helped some but didn't take care of everything. And so, we too, are left with the feeling of something still being wonky. But we also still wonder if we're making a big deal out of nothing since his grades are good (not great, but good) and wonder if our perspective is just a bit skewed by our own giftedness experiences and those of our other kids. If he's ND, great! But if he has some LD's we don't want to ignore it.

This thread has been really helpful to me! So, thanks for starting it!

This thread has me remembering...DD at 4 singing her heart out that She was bein' eatin' by a boa "a-fictor" :-) or talking about the twirling Tomatoes - and then we said tornados and she says "THAT is WHAT I SAID!"

I also read some web sites re: CAPD and the constant "What?" happens here daily. Also when we read together she enjoys it but when I ask her a question about what we just read she often says "I can't remember." AND seems really stressed/annoyed with the question.

Lol! Yeah, it did help
Ds9 was diagnosed mainly with depression, but also anxiety (mostly about school and social issues) and also an actual but 'non defined' ld that shows primarily in sometimes excruciatingly slow processing speed. In the end I can't say it was 'incredibly conclusive' but did point us in the right direction with definite goals and he is much happier, even doing a bit better academically though he was always doing well there.
One extremely low cogat score is what finally threw us over the fence to just 'go for it' rather than continue to wonder about the timed math fact sheets etc -- I didn't want to wait too long and do more 'damage'.
Don't feel paranoid, in the end you probably do know your own kid! Turns out we knew something was up, just didn't know what or how to help.

We did have to pay up-front but then got reimbursed, miraculously, by ins. company...

APD - I have been wondering about that for a while, ds9 is still a guy who will say things like 'I won to her', instead of 'I beat her' at that game...odd things like that, but I have gotten no traction with the neuropsych, the school, the school psychologist or the audiologist/ent folks. So for ds9 I have to assume it is *not*, but it sure is ODD. The psychologist thought he was just wired differently.

For tests we did have iq and achievement in this big battery, some add/adhd stuff because for us that was a question, but there were tests of
'executive function'
some attention paid to auditory issues,
hand eye coordination
inhibition
dr's behavioral observations
mood screening
and so on.... Basically the neuropsychologist didn't say 'here is a list of tests, please pick' (so don't feel like you have to know it all, I tend to feel that way!), he had 2 types of testing - basic 'how smart is my kid' testing and this other level.

Our dr chatted with me for about 45 minutes on the phone and again for about 2 hours in person about ds (me and dh) and described the testing he recommended - sounds like you have someone already in mind, so that is some of the work out of the way. But I would think if some of these broad areas such as add are not a concern some of what we did wouldn't be needed, right? (makes sense to me) anyway, again, best of luck - this is a tough row to hoe but you will get to the end of it!

OOPS! just kidding - seriously, whoops, hope I didn't confuse anyone too much! thanks

Kriston,

We just did an OT eval this week for dd. She said it was really fun. I realize it doesn't cover exactly the issues you are concerned with, but thought I would mention that there is a "fun" test out there. In our case the evaluation is covered by our insurance. Last year's neuropsych evaluation was not...

It looks like Dr. Amend's office can do all kinds of diagnostic tests. I bet they can steer you toward other specialists near you for any other testing. (Dr. Amend is on our radar too...)

I hope you get some good news,
Chrys

Saw Dr. Amend in Feb. I had testing done by the school and he was able to go over all the testing that had been done. He agreed with what the others had come up with and was able to give me ideas and accomadations to take back to the school. He understood about the distance from our home so that is why testing was done in the school setting instead. Otherwise it can be up to 12 hours of testing at 250 an hour. It was well worth it for the 3 hour trip down to Lexington. If you can get into see him do it. It will reassure you that you are doing okay.

Kriston, my middle child is a puzzle too so I can totally empathize with you. The psych that we are using says he prefers kids to be at least 8 for evaluations. I have heard that kids outgrow some sensory disorders (?) so that may be a partial reason.

My 11 year old son went through testing and I really have more questions now than I ever did. We went through testing hoping that we could get a diagnosis so he could get OT/PT if he needed it and accommodations for testing if he needed them.

He was diagnosed with motor dyspraxia, but when I look at the symptoms now, few of them seem to fit. I watched videos of my son performing in 17 different songs with his musical theater group, and a lot of them required dancing. His timing was fine. I watched him at rehearsals. The only difference I could see was that his low muscle tone and low endurance caused him to need to rest after two hours when the other kids could keep on going for several more hours. He has to sit and watch sometimes while the other kids keep practicing so he gets about half the practice the other kids get actually doing the dances. He does look a little uncoordinated when he gets to the point that his legs and back start hurting and he just can't keep going, but until then I can no longer see a difference in how fast he learns the dances. The musical theater director can see the difference. One of the moms who is involved with the group told me he is one of the kids that can skip a practice and manage to get it by the time of the performance. She said some kids can't. He learned the song "Bare Necessities" quickly when another actor couldn't do it and practiced it only 3 or 4 times with his partner before the show. He had to remember which way to exit, stage left or stage right, 17 times so he has no left/right confusion. His balance is good now, he isn't out of sync with the other dancers unless he is tired, and he just took a typing test on typingtest.com and typed 38 wpm and he doesn't really touch type. He says he doesn't need to put his hands on the home keys, he can put them anywhere on the keyboard and just use whatever finger is most convenient to type a particular letter. Doesn't that take fine motor coordination? But he definitely still has dysgraphia and at least we got that diagnosis on paper. But I feel that I can't really tell people like the musical theater director that he has motor dyspraxia because if she looks up symptoms on the internet, most of them don't really fit now. His problems now are still the low endurance, low muscle tone, the brace and the migraines. He is good at tongue twisters and using different accents and will sometimes change accents like from a British, Australian, and Irish accents while he is reading out loud for fun.

My son was getting a migraine the day he took the test and I gave him Tylenol which doesn't work very well for his pain. We told the neuropsychologist about it and she said she didn't think it made any difference in the testing. I know that I don't think as well when I have a migraine. When we asked the neuropsychologist why he was able to do certain things that I would think impossible if he had dyspraxia, she said he could have splinter skills. If this is true, I think splinter skills can really make it hard to identify LDs. I wonder if gifted kids have more of these splinter skills than other kids with LDs.