Jump to content

Menu

Should I get a formal Diagnosis?


Recommended Posts

Soo, several years ago, the school psychologist evaluated my son. I filled out a home life question form as did his teacher and we were referred to see his pediatrician for "proper" ADHD diagnosis. We mentioned it to his Dr at the time and he asked me if I really wanted that diagnosis because it would be on his record from then on? (This dr didn't like labeling children with ADHD) He didn't seem against the diagnosis of ADHD but suggested we just try to accomodate him without further testing/diagnosis, etc.. then if it became unbearable and messing up our day to day life; then re-evaluate where we stand.

 

Well, here we stand. He talks my ears off all day long about random topics, randomly within conversations. He is a know it all of all topics and will correct anyone that thinks they know something about the topic he is thinks he is superior on :/ He also will verbally rationalize any action we are doing. If we pull up to a stop sign he will say. "We always stop and look both directions to see if drivers are paying attention. Some drivers may not be paying attention and may run the stop sign.. So we must watch ourselves, isn't that right?" But its with EVERYTHING I do; he verbally talks me through it.. is it sad to say its annoying me?!

 

When he meets a math problem that challenges him he freezes, lays his head on the table and refuses to move any further because he "knows" its too hard for him. IF the work is easy; he happily moves on through but we are now caught up to his level on TT and we need to stride forward now. He is hitting a brick wall. He is learning regrouping with larger math problems. Say 274+856. He sees this large problem and assumes its larger therefore harder therefore it will lead to failure. and his mind shuts off. I have to verbally walk him through asking what is 4+6, where do you put the zero? where do you put the one? I mean, I can verbally walk him through all of these problems and he will get a 100 on the assignment.. but I just feel it shouldn't be a mental struggle with him every.single.day.

 

He has emotional outbursts if someone doesn't hear him the first time. He fidgets but isn't overly active. He can be very shy and introverted but then cries that he has no friends at home. At church, he refuses to make friends without his younger brother first introducing him. He is in gymnastics and likes all the boys with him but he never pursues to get to know them even after my nudging.. and yet again, cries when he gets home that he has no friends. He gets along great with his cousins and is comfortable with them and fun loving. He is also big on fairness and equality. He keeps tabs of all rules, what people are given, allowed and expects he will always be allowed the same and will pitch a fit if he feels he's been served an injustice (even when out of my control)

 

IDK, should I just continue to deal? Or Should I seek evaluation.. Some days he seems normal compared to my other three kids and then somedays he just makes me stare at him and wonder whats wrong with him?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with getting an evaluation. I would call his doctor who is treating his ADHD. Do you have a behavior specialist? Contact your insurance to see if they have someone they recommend. Does your local school system provide IEP evaluations?

 

well, he isn't treated for ADHD. His pediatrician looked over the questionnaires and spoke with me a bit and suggested we try to accomodate before we gave him a formal diagnosis.. that was several years ago... I did everything the school system would do with him here several years ago. They required an official diagnosis that his doctor wasn't willing to give without attempting to accomodate him for a while as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can start with a recommendation from your ped who will most likely refer you to a psychologist. We went this route and now do have a diagnosis. I was hesitant to do it for the same reasons your dr. mentioned but am glad we did b/c I now know what I am dealing with and how to approach helping. BTW, if you do it privately w/o involving the public school system, no one needs to know but you. I have not shared dd's diagnosis with anyone but dh, not even the grandparents, out of respect for her privacy. I do like to have it b/c in the future she will need accomodations on tests and so forth and those services will need to be provided to her since I have documentation. My insurance covered 100% of the testing. Some do, some don't. It is free through the ps if you have access to the services. My psychologist told me that keywords are - lack of attention, slow auditory processing, distracted, frustration, comprehension problems etc to get it covered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FWIW, I would not accept a diagnosis without a full neuropsych eval to rule out the many possibilities that overlap with adhd. In your post I see perfectionism/fear of failure and introversion. Emotional sensitivity and very strong sense of fairness are on a list of gifted characteristics. None of those are on the diagnostic checklist for adhd. I don't know what to say about the annoyong talking aspect, except that my dd does that too sometimes.

 

I would not see a ped for adhd diagnosis. but yes if this is significantly affectimg your and his daily life, get an eval

 

just my two cents :)

Edited by wapiti
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recommend getting the evaluation done. We had dd evaluated last spring for ADHD but then this fall we had her evaluated by a neuropsychologist and was diagnosed with Aspergrs and ADHD. It really is best to know what you are dealing with. What area of GA are you in(understood if you would rather not say:))

 

we are south of Atlanta!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, what or how good is the Conner's Evaluation? Opinions? The group fairly close to us offers two assessments. One for ADHD and is considerably cheaper and then the Conner's Assessment. It is more expensive and they will not file insurance for either evaluation..which is fine, still cheaper than our deductible...

 

Will the Conner's Evaluation be a waste of money? Can you get an accurate diagnosis from this assessment?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would get an evaluation. The issues you are mentioning sound a lot more like Asperger's than ADHD though.

 

hmmm I haven't considered Asperger's. However, I am not a Psychologist either. The only "odd" thing he does is something that he has confessed to me recently. He told me the other day when walking, if he didn't have anything good to think about he would think "left" "right" with each step. So he says its important for him to think of something good so he doesn't have to think about left and right all the time...I haven't heard him do this out loud. I do know he will point out patterns in an environment, etc... but I am also like that and notice weird stuff. My husband says I am weird and do weird things and he is just a mini me. :001_huh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what you said in your original post, it sounds like he is making up rules all the time and expects everything to stay the same all the time. That's very Aspie-ish.

 

My two older girls are both Aspie even though they are as different as night and day. My oldest looked more like she was ADD when she was younger (and was diagnosed ADD at 11yo). By 18yo, it was obvious that she was Aspie. Currently she is diagnosed Asperger's and OCD (what looked like ADD was actually obsessive thoughts).

 

My middle dd was clearly on spectrum from infancy. Although she was severely affected as a young child, she has made a lot of progress and people don't see the Asperger's in her immediately like they do in my other dd (who didn't look Aspie as a very young child, just precocious). My middle dd is actually quite outgoing now and has been able to let go of a lot of her rigidity, although her facial expressions still don't match her emotions and she is still rule-bound.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...