Got dh to agree to testing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pepperlc]

I listened to you all and decided to broach the subject again. I said "I think we need to get him tested because what if it isn't ADHD and its something else and we don't know it." He said ok.

Dh drives me nuts. He might have just needed those few days since I first mentioned it to process and think about it or i might have had a better argument today.

So......................

There are so many different doctors who do testing I have no idea where to go? Child Psychiatrist? Dev Ped? Child Psychologist? Someone with experience as a school psychologist?

I do know that I would really like him to see someone who thinks outside of the ADHD box to be sure they aren't going to just say ADHD. It could be other things. Attachment disorder was mentioned to me. Maybe its all food allergy related and nothing else. I have no idea. We have already had his vision tested with the a peds. ophthalmologist at the local Children's Hospital and his hearing has been tested as well.

I'm fairly certain its not auditory processing disorder because he listens to novels and other stories in the car in an abstract situation and he hears them and understands them well. He is clearly interacting with something he is only hearing and asks questions about it. It seems more like selective hearing most of the time or too distracted to listen.

So where do I start now that I got the okay.
karen

PS I just found a flyer for a Clinical Neuropsychologist who works with my pediatricians office. Seems good but I have no idea but very ADHD focused.

[amelia1]

Well that was a huge relief to me, when I told DH I was having DD tested and he didn't put up a fight. Sometimes I felt like he didn't think SPD was real. He still hasn't said much about it even now that we got our eval and are going ahead with treatment. Hugs. Hope you get some answers soon.

[jeninnc]

Oh Karen, I am so happy for you.

I would find a good child psych - ask for a referral from your pediatrician, or your OT.

[trek]

yeahPersonally I would go with child neuropsychologist-they have the capability of doing the most complete testing.

[pepperlc]

I think I found a dev. ped/psychiatrist

that sounds good right? My friend use to work at Children's so hopefully she will know of this guy and tell me he is good. He is the head of the dept but that doesn't always mean anything.

thanks everyone,
karen

[Laura H1]

Karen! That is great news! I just read about your MSG post... according to Christian's neurologist (and my own personal experience), MSG is bad stuff for most people, but especially neurologically at-risk kids...

thanks to your post, I got some additional education, lol, i.e., I had NO idea MSG had different names... we also use vegetarian breakfast sausages, they are loaded with hydrolyzed soy protein... accckkk! thought I was giving them something MSG-free... no wonder I can't eat them without getting a splitting headache soon after...

I learned awhile back to AVOID canned soups and onion soup mixes... it's better for me to make my own (and extra) and freeze it... my sil AND mil brag about how they introduced my kids to "chicken and stars"... it has taken alot of carefully thought out conversations to get them to stop feeding this junk to my kids... my mil is really do a good job now asking about what to feed Chris when he spends the night with her once a month...and if she has any questions, she calls... she's even gone as far as getting fruit cocktail in plastic cups instead of aluminum cans... she's REALLY trying to do her part...

sil on the other hand is still a work in progress... she thinks I'm depriving my kids when I don't buy them "chicken and stars", doritoes, "zebra cakes" (she's got boxes and boxes of snack cakes and let's them each have two packages a day on Monday's)... I desperately need her to watch my kids on Monday's, but am so torn on her ignoring me... on the other hand, now that she sees Chris every Monday, she has finally realized that he does have some serious issues.... she is slowly changing what she feeds them... and she is even slightly open to the MSG in onion soup mix issue (she puts this in all of her beef containing recipes... and they eat beef a minimum of 3 nights a week)... it's interesting to me that she has not had a migraine in a couple of weeks... she is attributing it to this new drink called "Mona Vie", but I really think it is because she is not using the onion soup mix as much...

we both see a neurologist for migraines... MSG is a HUGE no-no... so is NutraSweet (aspartame)... I didn't realize this was in Trident!

So, I thank you again for your post on this! I swear I thought it was Splenda when I read the ingredient list! Xylitol is okay for us and good for your teeth, and I was willing to allow a small amount of Splenda in their chewing gum for the sensory benefits... I cannot believe I was letting them consume NutraSweet! I had a bad experience in college with NutraSweet (lost my memory, had bad headaches and had a horrible quarter in college... I could not function... turned out to be the NutraSweet in the Diet Dr. Pepper's I was addicted to... one of the student health doctor's finally figured it out... I recovered quickly and my grades shot back up... I went from a 3.13 gpa to a ZERO POINT SEVEN NINE!)

anyway, soooooo relieved for you that you are going to be able to get Jacob tested...
Laura

[JulieATL]

Okay, I have to read ALL the posts before responding....m

Karen, I'm driving you crazy, aren't I? I'm away from the board for 3 days and here's all these great updates, but I don't know how to read them all first! So anyway, awesome that dh agreed. It's hard to know exacty which specialist to go with as you start, and truly you may need to get a couple of opnions because each person is going to have their own take on things. When you say dev ped/child psychiatrist...is the doctor both a pediatrician and a psychiatrist? That I've never heard of. A dev ped will have a more broad look at things, but usually just refer out, and some have more outside the box thinking and others are much more medical. A child psychiatrist will be the most likely one to be thinking in terms of a psychiatric diagnosis like ADHD or related. A neuropsych will be thinking more neurological and a pyschologist may have more of a behavioral or attachment or family oriented approach. I would be open to seeing at least two specialists who are very different to get different thoughts. I would at least choose a child psychiatrist and then perhaps a neuropsych or a psychologist. Also if you are dealing with some sort of attachment issue, they may have the best referral for a therapist to help with such issues.

So glad you got dh to get on board, it will make a huge difference.

- Julie

[Guest]

Karen..

here's some info on auditory processing disorder. You know that they will not test for it until age 7 anyway. My dd has it and while she can totally understand a book being read, she had great difficulty with a lot of the following when she got to Kindergarten. This excerpt is from LDonline.org

Common areas of difficulty and some educational implications:

Phonological awareness

Phonological awareness is the understanding that language is made up of individual sounds (phonemes) which are put together to form the words we write and speak. This is a fundamental precursor to reading. Children who have difficulty with phonological awareness will often be unable to recognize or isolate the individual sounds in a word, recognize similarities between words (as in rhyming words), or be able to identify the number of sounds in a word. These deficits can affect all areas of language including reading, writing, and understanding of spoken language.

Though phonological awareness develops naturally in most children, the necessary knowledge and skills can be taught through direct instruction for those who have difficulty in this area.

Auditory discrimination

Auditory discrimination is the ability to recognize differences in phonemes (sounds). This includes the ability to identify words and sounds that are similar and those which are different.

Auditory memory

Auditory memory is the ability to store and recall information which was given verbally. An individual with difficulties in this area may not be able to follow instructions given verbally or may have trouble recalling information from a story read aloud.

Auditory sequencing

Auditory sequencing is the ability to remember or reconstruct the order of items in a list or the order of sounds in a word or syllable. One example is saying or writing "ephelant" for "elephant."

Auditory blending

Auditory blending is the process of putting together phonemes to form words. For example, the individual phonemes "c", "a", and "t" are blended to from the word, "cat".

[Guest]

Also..

this is the type of dr I'd try to find:

http://www.dfwdrpete.com/Home_Page.html

I saw him speak at my dd's school and he was very very very involved in trying to figure out exactly what was going on with children before applying any dx. I don't know how you figure that out before the appt. I wish I had known about this guy prior to all of our testing.

[pepperlc]

If it was this it would be auditory memory and/or auditory sequencing. The others don't fit. He is beginning to read on his own and is picking the sounds and letters stuff up quickly.

Thank you very much. I'm going to print this to bring with me. I hadn't realized that it had so many parts.

Also he is very good at listening to books on tape/cd and understanding what is going on. He asks tons of questions and later can usually tell me about what we listened too.
karen

[pepperlc]

I emailed this doctor and asked him if could recommend someone in the DC area. Can't hurt to ask right?
karen

[Guest]

Auditory memory was one of the first signs...

If it was this it would be auditory memory and/or auditory sequencing. The others don't fit. He is beginning to read on his own and is picking the sounds and letters stuff up quickly.

Thank you very much. I'm going to print this to bring with me. I hadn't realized that it had so many parts.

Also he is very good at listening to books on tape/cd and understanding what is going on. He asks tons of questions and later can usually tell me about what we listened too.
karen

I never picked up on it while reading to her. She could always talk about the book with me. However, trying to get her to learn her address and phone numbers was like torture! I really thought she was playing with me and then I realized she wasn't. I could tell her and she could not repeat it back to me. My dd got to the point where she knew every letter, every sound, but could not put them together, could not tell the difference between words that sound a lot alike, could not break apart words and tell me things like the "what sound does cat start with?" She's really come a very long way with therapy and by all appearances she doesn't seem to be affected at all, except sometimes I wonder if she doesn't hear me correctly when I ask her to do something. She also gets noise fatigue easily and seeks out a quiet spot if it gets to be too much. GL!!!! I hope you find a specialist who is general enough that they will give a comprehensive set of testing. Keep me posted! One of these days it will all come together. I know it has been hard on you to be patient and wait for him to get older.