Diagnosis Follow-up

On Monday, I kept Megan and James home from school because James had an appointment with the psychologist at 9:30am. It took 45 minutes to get there, then we sat and waiting for 2 ½ hours before the doctor saw us. Our meeting with him was only 15 minutes long, during which he gave me a letter that listed his diagnosis and recommendations, and I asked him as many questions as I’d written down or could think of. The kids were, once again, restless, rambunctious, and quarrelsome. They’d been a nightmare in the waiting room. I wondered why they didn’t tell me not to bring them, since he didn’t even deal with James at all. Afterwards, it took another ½ hour just to get out of the parking lot. I got home at 1pm or so and fed them lunch before putting Megan and Isaac down for a nap. (Isaac was almost asleep in the car before I got home.) I didn’t think it was worth taking James back to school for one hour.

The results: ADHD, combined type with aggressive tendencies; Aspergers; Mood Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified; Communication Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified. His IQ was 124, in the 95^th percentile, Superior. The psychologist recommended medication for ADHD, speech therapy, and behavioral therapy. They made me an appointment with a psychiatrist for next week to address medication.

So I went in to the Child 3 Follow-up meeting on Tuesday right after school. Rex told me he wouldn’t be there because he had TAKS tutoring after school. Much to my surprised, he showed up after all, his grade-level-team teachers covering his students for him. After waiting for 20 minutes, much to our dismay, Mrs. Wysong was called in and told us that the meeting had been canceled because it had been determined that the testing/assessments for James would be administered and they’d gotten our written permission previously. We had not known that this made the meeting unnecessary, and we had not been informed of its cancellation; in fact, I had been in correspondence with both Mrs. Wysong and Mrs. Norris (the school psychologist) regarding what to bring to the meeting just the day before, and they had said nothing about its cancellation. Since the meeting did not happen, I handed a copy of our psychologist’s diagnosis to Mrs. Wysong to be distributed to whoever needed it, and then I emailed all my questions to Mrs. Norris. Furthermore, I gathered that, despite our diagnosis, it doesn’t carry much weight for the school since it was not their diagnosis; it only proves that testing on James should be done by the school. In other words, there is still a good possibility that they run him through the gantlet only to conclude nothing is wrong with him and that he does not qualify for help through the school. Because Rex got his tutoring covered, he may be indebted to his fellow teachers unnecessarily, but at least we were able to enjoy having Dad home early. (This allowed us to go to IHOP earlier than planned for the free-pancake-day, and still get the kids bathed and put to bed early since they’d skipped their naps.)