is diagnosis needed?

My son has NLD, not dyslexia, but we have found that a really thorough eval was tremendously valuable. A good eval will show you not only the “symptoms” (i.e., he can’t read) but where the break-down is, so that you can target the remediation more specifically. At least as importantly, a full eval will tell you his cognative strengths. This allows you to use those strengths to help him learn compensating streategies to support his weak areas.

I can’t think of ANYTHING harmful about getting as much good information as possible about how your child’s mind ticks when you are dealing with learning difficulties.

Karen

Start by making a list of questions about your child; if you still need(after the school’s testing which I assume you’ve had) answers about your child’s abilities and especially if you’re questioning medication I would recommend a private evaluation. It may depend on the state in which you live as to whether your child would qualify for different services with a more complete diagnosis; in Massachusetts the Dept. of ED. has a web-site with clear categories of diagnoses for classification for special ed. services…the schools in Mass. are now in the position of having to provide a diagnosis for the children they serve in spec. ed. Sometimes a meeting with the school with your questions in hand may be enough to clarify things. I think that meetings with the schools sometimes spend too much time on parent-school struggle over specific services and not enough time on explaining the underlying problem and that the school cannot fix everthing with a specific program in a set amount of time.

I was always taught that diagnosis should effect treatment. I was taught that to subject the parents to the cost of testing and the child to the stress of it, I needed to be sure that something would happen around the testing.

But that’s what I was taught and I don’t know that it serves every school or family well. Some folks just like to know. The school for which I work often recommends a full battery of tests at the parents’ expense but then files the test results away and no teacher is ever told of them much less encouraged to alter their teaching to better meet the child’s needs.

When you ask them why they want the testing done, what do they say? They already say they will do nothing different based on the testing.

Will they pay for it or will you? The cost of testing around here is now so great I would hesitate before having my own children tested unless it was of dire need.

Testing changed things for my son.

We had it done, ($1200, insurance paid after we paid)
and I took the report to an IEP mtg.

I think they felt they had to respond. It helped
that he had a teacher that year who went to bat for
him.

They increased his resource time.
One teacher supposed she ought to work
with him more on phonics…
This was in elementary school.

What I liked about the testing and the doctor
is how he pointed out DS’s strengths. In some
tests he was down right astounded at DS’s abilities.

As a parent it really helped to hear that.

In middle school it helped me advocate for DS to be able to
take some ‘specials’ classes in his strengths, such
as art and technology.

I also took him out of SE classe, which were full of kiddos
with all sorts LDs and got him set up
to work independently on a computer program
designed for dyslexics.

Anne

As you can see, different people have had different experiences with testing.
If you son is already receiving services and is doing well, I wouldn’t bother with testing.
Our experience was that the school didn’t use the outside testing reports and my son’s classroom teacher never read them (when I offered the reports to one teacher, she said “no thanks….I’d rather make up my own mind on your son”).
Testing costs money and takes time and ultimately didn’t help my son learn to read, write or spell better. And it just made him feel “more different”.

I believe you made need a diagnosis to be eligible for certain services, especially as they get older. For example extra time on SAT’s or other standardized testing and most colleges require it for accomadations.

We just completed testing on our son - and discovered not ADD, but anxiety - (on top of a reading LD) which has caused us to consider different services as a part of how address his needs.