Neuropsych Consultation this morning!

[Tiramisu]

nm

[TraceyS/FL]

Good luck!!! I was uber nervous before ours - and the office had cancelled the consult first because the doctor had had surgery. She wasn't actually happy about having to do it all on one day - she had wanted time to go thru all the stuff I had for her.

 

And, mine told me to do ANYTHING to not send her to public middle school and keep her home - so here is hoping yours feels the same way!!

 

:::hug:::

[Mukmuk]

:grouphug: Hope it went well.

 

You're so well prepared, from the folder of documents all the way to covering your gray :001_smile:. Our NP was all for homeschooling- hope yours is too.

[PeterPan]

Well if she hasn't had any experience yet with homeschoolers, you'll be her first chance! :)

 

You're gonna be fine. They don't care how you look. Ours had a couch. I walked in and wondered what I had gotten into, lol. (Freud and all, lie down...) Turns out it was just to make you comfy. It will be fine. That's good that you're going without her. Let it be cathartic and just GET IT ALL OUT! That's what you're paying them for. Life has been hard, and you're paying them to listen. Then they get the fun of sorting it all out.

 

Take it easy the rest of the day. This is going to be a time of emotional roller coasters, no matter what. We'll be thinking of you! :)

[GAPeachie]

Praying it all goes well!

 

Our NP has mostly been incredibly helpful. Most of our frustration is from the office staff's disorganization.

[fiddle]

Praying for you, Kelli! Some day down the road I'd like to get neuropyschs on both kids, but I know our insurance won't pay for any of it and we don't have the money.

 

You are organized and ready, my friend! Go get 'em!

 

Paula

[tabrizia]

Good Luck, our Neuropsych is thrilled we are homeschooling DS. I think that in general Neuropsych's are more homeschooling and alt education friendly because they see a lot of the kids that public school's really have a hard time accommodating.

[Tiramisu]

Well, we're back!

 

She was a jean, t-shirt, and ponytail gal....and in the office, there was something that looked like a bed. It even had a pillow on it! She was intense, but not intimidating and was very concerned that I had all my questions answered before I left.

 

It doesn't look good for insurance coverage. The letter from the neurologist (but not the neurologist), she agreed was a dud. Basically, unless we have a diagnosis, it's unlikely anything will be covered, and we're still searching. She will do a payment plan, though. :001_smile:

 

One question that came up for her was why ADHD wasn't ever brought up since according to the information she saw, that should have been something that was looked into. Then she realized that we lived abroad for a big chunk of dd's childhood, and one of the first things we did was take her to a neurologist who said she was "normal." I also told her I got mixed messages from teachers and discussed my concerns with the guidance counselor, but nothing was ever done. She said that it's not something that's done in schools. Well, I was a lot more ignorant then. But I did take her to neurologists, a psychiatrist, and audiologists at 7, 9, 11, 15, and 16, so I really thought I was covering my bases. It's not that she was accusatory but more puzzled that this hadn't been investigated more. Let's say it turns out there's something like ADHD going on after all. The reason it would have been missed is because dd is not hyper or impulsive, and she's got the CAPD to muck up the attention aspect. We'll see what she says after the evaluation.

 

So, the evaluation will be scheduled for two hours each for three days. She doesn't want her clients to go to school those days. She doesn't mind spreading the appointments out to even once every other week if it means dd is less stressed, less likely to get burned out, and can get her school work done. We may not need the last appointment but she'll schedule it anyway.

 

So that's about it. We're moving forward.

 

Please continue to keep us in your prayers and thoughts. We have another medical test later this week. :grouphug:

[Jennifer-72]

Good luck. :grouphug:

[NittanyJen]

Good luck. It sounds as if you have someone who is really paying attention!

[Crimson Wife]

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: It really does sound difficult from what I've gathered talking with an Aud.D. and our family's pediatric neurologist to tease apart CAPD, AD(H)D, and working memory issues without a full NP evaluation. I hope you get the answers from the NP testing to clarify exactly what is going on with your DD!

[Tiramisu]

A new update: I got an email from the neuropsych. She called the insurance company, and it looks like it should be covered after all. She seemed surprised and still a bit skeptical, but she must be optimistic enough to let me know and tell me she will not bill me anymore...unless the insurance really doesn't come through.

 

I really feel like someone is watching over us. Paula, you have been praying, haven't you? And GAPeachie, too! :)

[FairProspects]

A new update: I got an email from the neuropsych. She called the insurance company, and it looks like it should be covered after all. She seemed surprised and still a bit skeptical, but she must be optimistic enough to let me know and tell me she will not bill me anymore...unless the insurance really doesn't come through.

 

I really feel like someone is watching over us. Paula, you have been praying, haven't you? And GAPeachie, too! :)

 

:hurray:

[Tiramisu]

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: It really does sound difficult from what I've gathered talking with an Aud.D. and our family's pediatric neurologist to tease apart CAPD, AD(H)D, and working memory issues without a full NP evaluation. I hope you get the answers from the NP testing to clarify exactly what is going on with your DD!

 

It is difficult! All of dd's CAP results were excellent except for two areas. One was speech in noise. (Dd recently said when multiple people are talking or when there's background noise, voices sound like the adults in Charlie Brown. Wa wa wa wa.) The other area of difficulty was dichotic listening or binaural integration. I think there is some controversy about dichotic listening in the audiological world. Our audiologist saw it as a problem of (brain) hemispheric integration. However, our neurologist sees it as an attention problem with a primarily auditory manifestation. The way he described it made me think of working memory deficit of the auditory system, even though he didn't use those words. I pictured it as the brain being limited in how much auditory input it can process at one time, so it focuses on processing the input from one side and ignores what's coming in from the other side. That happens in some people with visual processing issues, doesn't it? What prevents this explanation from being completely coherent in dd's case is that her working memory was technically average three years ago.

 

Do I seem like I know what I'm talking about? I really don't. :lol:

[fiddle]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

 

I really feel like someone is watching over us. Paula, you have been praying, haven't you?

You bet!

 

 

Since you're turning into the expert, I'll be posting to get your guidance when (if) we ever go for the nueropysch or CAPD testing.......

 

Paula

[PeterPan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichotic_listening_test Kelli, I think you may have to expand your mind to allow *both* or *all* the explanations you get to be true, all at the same time. OT's also deal with dichotic listening. It was a different OT I talked with, whom we never ended up following up with, who was talking about this. Apparently IM (interactive metronome) can be done for it. Anyways, this wikipedia article is talking about the processing for it being done in the frontal lobe, which is of course where you have the deficits causing adhd. And the article talks about the bilaterality issues. So it's not one or the other. You're actually putting both professionals' takes together and starting to see a more rounded picture. They're all petting an elephant. ;)

 

And yes, girl adhd/add does not look like boy adhd, and adhd subtype inattentive doesn't look like subtype hyperactive. I know someone irl whose kid started with an adhd diagnosis, got the CAPD diagnosis later, and I'm not sure that dismissed the adhd. It's just a matter of the numbers and what is going on.

 

VT does therapy for figure/ground issues. You can have this situation where the person can't distinguish visually the figure and ground, so they work on it. However the wikipedia article talks about working memory as the chalkboard the brain uses to process all the background and extra signals that it's not focusing on (hence DIchotic or dual-channel listening). So by expanding her working memory function, you expand her ability to process more. At least that's where it sounds like they're coming from. And you know my dd had a point when she was 5, 6 where we were doing some of those visual skills workbooks and whatnot that Timberdoodle sells, and she seemed to be perfectly fine. A few years later, boom, we were plunking out the big bucks for VT. No clue why that changed. It might be her brain was ok to meet developmental standards for that age, but as she grew she hit limits and couldn't keep up with expanded needs, kwim? I have no clue, just saying we had that oddity.

 

Well I'm glad you at least liked her and that she's fighting to get your insurance coverage. That's helpful! And if it feels like a pigeon-holed explanation is coming, it's probably not. It's just lots of ways and angles of looking at it. It's probably *all* true. Whether that's encouraging or not, I don't know.

 

So are you afraid if she does the testing 3 days straight she'll get sick? My dd got *tired* from her testing but not sick. After all, it's just them in a quiet room with a quiet tester. It's not hip or distracting or a noisy place or anything. I would dump the school work and get it over with. The sooner you get the testing done, the sooner you get your results. Don't make her sick over it, but I'd get it done as soon as you can. then you won't be left hanging over the holidays. We had to wait over Thanksgiving last year for our results, and that was screwy.

[Tiramisu]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichotic_listening_test Kelli, I think you may have to expand your mind to allow *both* or *all* the explanations you get to be true, all at the same time. OT's also deal with dichotic listening. It was a different OT I talked with, whom we never ended up following up with, who was talking about this. Apparently IM (interactive metronome) can be done for it. Anyways, this wikipedia article is talking about the processing for it being done in the frontal lobe, which is of course where you have the deficits causing adhd. And the article talks about the bilaterality issues. So it's not one or the other. You're actually putting both professionals' takes together and starting to see a more rounded picture. They're all petting an elephant. ;)

 

I think it does probably fit together, just not as neatly as I'd like. Perhaps it's just a matter of perspective. I also remember reading that adhd adults can focus their attention on their weak ear when told to do so, and stimulant medications have been proven to help.

 

And yes, girl adhd/add does not look like boy adhd, and adhd subtype inattentive doesn't look like subtype hyperactive. I know someone irl whose kid started with an adhd diagnosis, got the CAPD diagnosis later, and I'm not sure that dismissed the adhd. It's just a matter of the numbers and what is going on.

 

I recently read a great article on add vs. adhd and why they should be two distinct disorders, and how add in particular is all about working memory.

 

VT does therapy for figure/ground issues. You can have this situation where the person can't distinguish visually the figure and ground, so they work on it. However the wikipedia article talks about working memory as the chalkboard the brain uses to process all the background and extra signals that it's not focusing on (hence DIchotic or dual-channel listening). So by expanding her working memory function, you expand her ability to process more. At least that's where it sounds like they're coming from. And you know my dd had a point when she was 5, 6 where we were doing some of those visual skills workbooks and whatnot that Timberdoodle sells, and she seemed to be perfectly fine. A few years later, boom, we were plunking out the big bucks for VT. No clue why that changed. It might be her brain was ok to meet developmental standards for that age, but as she grew she hit limits and couldn't keep up with expanded needs, kwim? I have no clue, just saying we had that oddity.

 

I also have wondered how the neural pruning of adolescence fits into hitting limits when there's expanded need.

 

Well I'm glad you at least liked her and that she's fighting to get your insurance coverage. That's helpful! And if it feels like a pigeon-holed explanation is coming, it's probably not. It's just lots of ways and angles of looking at it. It's probably *all* true. Whether that's encouraging or not, I don't know.

 

I definitely got the feeling pigeon-holing won't be an issue, and that's good!

So are you afraid if she does the testing 3 days straight she'll get sick? My dd got *tired* from her testing but not sick. After all, it's just them in a quiet room with a quiet tester. It's not hip or distracting or a noisy place or anything. I would dump the school work and get it over with. The sooner you get the testing done, the sooner you get your results. Don't make her sick over it, but I'd get it done as soon as you can. then you won't be left hanging over the holidays. We had to wait over Thanksgiving last year for our results, and that was screwy.

 

I was the one who wanted to get it done quickly. I think dd will be fine with it, though three days in a row might become annoying for her, which isn't the worst thing in the world. I am more worried about balancing everything since we do have other appointments coming up. I also have granny-monster watching the other kids, and I hate to take advantage of her. She offered to stretch it out because most kids who are in school would have a hard time missing three days of school in a row. Plus, it does require concentration and that can be draining, and could cause a child not to do as well (?).

 

:)

[Element]

A new update: I got an email from the neuropsych. She called the insurance company, and it looks like it should be covered after all. She seemed surprised and still a bit skeptical, but she must be optimistic enough to let me know and tell me she will not bill me anymore...unless the insurance really doesn't come through.

 

I really feel like someone is watching over us. Paula, you have been praying, haven't you? And GAPeachie, too! :)

 

Congratulations on this! I know what a relief that must be for you.

[Crimson Wife]

It is difficult! All of dd's CAP results were excellent except for two areas. One was speech in noise. (Dd recently said when multiple people are talking or when there's background noise, voices sound like the adults in Charlie Brown. Wa wa wa wa.) The other area of difficulty was dichotic listening or binaural integration. I think there is some controversy about dichotic listening in the audiological world. Our audiologist saw it as a problem of (brain) hemispheric integration. However, our neurologist sees it as an attention problem with a primarily auditory manifestation. The way he described it made me think of working memory deficit of the auditory system, even though he didn't use those words. I pictured it as the brain being limited in how much auditory input it can process at one time, so it focuses on processing the input from one side and ignores what's coming in from the other side. That happens in some people with visual processing issues, doesn't it? What prevents this explanation from being completely coherent in dd's case is that her working memory was technically average three years ago.

 

Do I seem like I know what I'm talking about? I really don't. :lol:

 

Speech in noise and dichotic listening were two of the lowest areas when my DD did the initial part of the CAPD screening. She also scored low on some of the auditory sequencing tasks, which is where I notice most of the symptoms.

[jenL]

We just started the NP process with my son; he's had 2 testing sessions so far, and our NP has been fabulous. He loves her!

 

Just wanted to say how wonderfully happy I am for you that it sounds like you've found a great one too! I know the nervousness you've been feeling... I was there just a week or two ago in anticipation of our first meeting. :001_smile:

 

Praying you get all your answers!!!

[Guest]

You and your girl are always in my thoughts and prayers :). Glad your insurance will be picking up the costs. Someone is definitely looking out for you :D!

[Pen]

I hope you will end up with some answers!!!