jubilee Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 I have hit my limitations as a home educating parent to help my 15 yr ds. Elementary years were filled with tears and frustration from both of us that not much school work was accomplished. I chalked it up with "the reason why we are home" & not having to be on anyone else's timeline; I can meet him where he is and move forward. Middle school years were more of the same so I enrolled him under a local charter school for this year to help prepare him for high school fall 2017. They utilize iReady testing for Math & ELA. His Jan. results show math at a 6th grade level and ELA at 7th grade level. He is strong-willed and emotional. If I suggest something one way he will do it the opposite way just because he needs to be the one to decide how to do things. He will cry when asked too many questions and takes a while to diffuse in order to come back to the topic. He struggles with verbalizing his thoughts and "I don't know" is his default answer to everything. He asked to learn how to read at 3 and once he accomplished it didn't pick up a book on his own until he was 12 yr. It is as if his brain is working so hard at something so basic he only can give himself to (2) subjects at a time. Btw, he sleeps on average 10hrs at night and sometimes will take a nap. My main reason for finally seeking testing is to give him the help that I am unable to provide on my own. He is a natural leader and great with his siblings. He will conversate with anyone that will listen and has natural qualities that cannot be taught. He talks of wanting to take CC classes and he is no where ready for that. He understands that to reach this goal, he needs to step up his game and I don't know how to do that. He has a math tutor 1x/week. He works on Khan Academy at home and they review only the areas he struggled with that week during the tutoring time. She has expressed that he does understand the concepts but he doesn't always choose the correct step to get the answer, thus resulting in the wrong answer. He almost always figures it out in his own when she points out an error. He is in TT 6 in addition to the tutoring. He will be working in Keys To fractions, decimals & percentage during the summer, wrapping up TT 6 in hopes to start Pre-Alg in the fall. He had a well check exam today with his pcp and my dh asked for a referral for a neuropsych evaluation. He gave my dh a Vanderbilt Assesment form for parent and teacher first. He then gave dh a print out of neuropsych/behavioral pediatrics; psychologists once dh insisted that we want to have the eval done. Not quite sure what direction to go. Any suggestions for SF Bay Area are appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 Slow processing speed and working memory deficits are things that could cause some of those symptoms. I've got a list that Susan Barton sent me of recommended dyslexia testers. I have no personal experience with any of them because we went with a specialized NP clinic for the deaf & hard-of-hearing at Johns Hopkins Kennedy Krieger in Baltimore. Here is Susan Barton's list: Berkeley Dr. Carina Grandison, neuropsychologist, 510-704-1820 Santa Cruz Dr. Cheryl Bowers, neuropsychologist, 831-430-0100 San Jose / Gilroy / Juan Batista Dr. Marni Sandoval, psychologist, 831-902-7371 Walnut Creek Clare Ames-Klein, neuropsychologist, 925-308-5644 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 In terms of the difficulty verbalizing his thoughts, you might want to read It's on the Tip of my Tongue by Diane German. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 Is spectrum on the table? (Just asking, not saying.) Congrats on getting your dh on board. No suggestion on who to use. More hours the better on testing and someone who really listens and is useful to talk with, not arrogant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 (edited) In terms of the difficulty verbalizing his thoughts, you might want to read It's on the Tip of my Tongue by Diane German. Yes! Our np ran word retrieval testing on dd. When you get someone spending enough hours and doing the testing themselves, not farming it out, they find things. Not that it's absolutely bad to have assistants, but I just don't prefer it. Edited May 11, 2017 by OhElizabeth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 qEEG is very alternative. You don't need that. It's fine if you go to someone who does it, but that would be like one doc out of a HUGE number of docs in the big city near us. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jubilee Posted May 11, 2017 Author Share Posted May 11, 2017 Thank you Crimson and OhE! Jubilee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jubilee Posted May 11, 2017 Author Share Posted May 11, 2017 Is spectrum on the table? (Just asking, not saying.) Congrats on getting your dh on board. No suggestion on who to use. More hours the better on testing and someone who really listens and is useful to talk with, not arrogant. At this point, I feel like I'm grasping at straws to get answers to questions I don't even know I have. Jubilee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 If you look at the DSM criteria and think he could possibly be there for spectrum, I would want a psych who's good at it and not just a psych who rocks SLDs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iris25 Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 For NP eval, I would consider Summit Center in Walnut Creek. We had a good experience there. They have a lot of experience with gifted and 2e kids. I have also heard good things about Dr. Carina Grandison. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.