My son is a 5 year old Kindergartner, and has recently undergone testing through the school for his inattention. He has already been in school for two years in an early eucation program, for speech problems. The school provided a psychologist, who evaluated my child, and ultimately diagnosed him as ADHD with inattention being the main factor. During the testing, my son’s IQ was rated using the Kauffman Assesment Battery for Children. His total IQ was in normal range, but the subtest scores suggest problems. My question is, if my child has a learning disability, is it possible that he is not ADHD? Was the psychologist too quick to diagnosis my child? No medication has been suggested, only classroom intervention.
Re: My child was dx with ADHD, but could it just be a LD
Sometime it can take several years or longer to sort out a diagnosis. My feeling is that diagnosing ADHD for sure in every five year old is impossible. The symptom of inattention is associated with a variety of conditions like ADHD, some types of epilepsy (petit mal, absence etc.), CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder), Tourette’s, and so on. Some ADHD-free children have learning disabilities of their own so the terms ADHD and Learning Disabilities are not at all identical in many cases.
Some psychologists are very conservative in their diagnoses while others tend to use diagnostic categories far more liberally. Technically, only a medical doctor (M.D.) can make a diagnosis of neurological ADHD and ADHD is parceled out in the medical community to psychiatry (although neurologists and pediatricians also can treat ADHD). In the very narrowest way, ADHD is often viewed as a lifelong neurological challenge where those who have classic ADHD tend to temporarily respond favorably to a traditional ADHD medicine, that is, a central nervous system stimulant/alerting agent.
That’s my understanding.
Re: it could also be both or CAPD
Yes, the teacher and I both filled out questionaires. His scores on his IQ test are: Sequential Processing-81
Simultaneous Processing-112
Mental Processing Composite-97
I’m not sure what these mean. I’ve had several people mention CAPD to me.
I think I’m just having trouble with patience. I want to know now what is wrong with my child, and how to help him. How do you keep yourself together through this whole process? I’ve been looking for answers for over three years now. Everytime I think we’re about to find answers, it only brings up more questions. It’s so frustrating.
Thanks for you reply, and any support will be appreciated.
Re: it could also be both or CAPD
I first noticed problems with my daughter when she was 4. I could never figure out what made her unable to read through a simple sentence when she was able to read. I had no idea it was attention problems.
The short version of the story is she was finally diagnosed with ADD at age 13. That is 9 long years! Nine years of frustration, wondering what kept her back when she was so bright. By the way, I homeschooled her through most of this, so on top of the frustration I had guilt, because I thought perhaps I wasn’t up to the job of homeschooling.
My advice is to read up on ADD, as well as language problems and Learning Disabilities. Become well informed. If something doesn’t seem to fit, keep reading and researching. At least you have a head start on me. I questioned other homeschoolers about my daughters lack of progress and was told to ignore it. They said it wasn’t a problem that a child couldn’t read until he or she was, say, 10! I did not take their advice, and continued trying to teach her. But I really didn’t research the possibilities until she was 8. So I lost three years. And so did my daughter, which is a shame.
Re: My child was dx with ADHD, but could it just be a LD
Technically the school psychologist cannot diagnose ADHD. The school can observe, document, complete ADHD behavior rating scales, even score the scales to learn if ADHD might be present. When all is said and done, this information must go to an M.D. who is legally the only person qualified to make this determination.
Your child might have an LD, he might have ADHD and the co-existence of both is pretty common.
Re: it could also be both or CAPD
Andrea,
I am not familiar with this type of IQ test. I am familiar with the WISC and WIAT and language testing. However, if these composite scores are based on 100 being average those scores are in the average range. But the low sequential processing is a 31 point difference between the high of 112 Simultaneous processing. Were these composite scores broken down into sub test scores of any kind?
It is hard to have patience when you are looking for solutions for your child. So many times we want to jump in and fix the problems but at times there are no easy fixes. What occurs is that we find ourselves with an overwhelming 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle and as we start to put it together we realize that we are missing some of the pieces and those are the ones that will help us finish putting the puzzle together or in other words help us with the answers we need to solve the problems. It takes an extensive search to get to the bottom of why some of our kids aren’t learning like their peers and many of us have been at the end of our rope several times during the long and ardous process. I can relate to your frustration personally as a parent of a child with LD’s. What I try to remember is that I don’t have to make everything all better for my child or those around me and that I can do what I can to help them endure the challenges that they face. In time you will find the answers and hopefully through this BB we can help you in some way.
Were you or the teachers asked to fill out any rating scales for inattentive behaviors? What was your child’s processing speed on the IQ test? Was it on the low side? What were the scores on the subtests? If we knew those then maybe we could be more more help.
A child who has speech and language problems can also have an auditory processing deficit or he can be ADD and in some instances he can have both ADD and Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD).
Usually kids who are ADD-inattentive also have problems learning and sustaining attention while learning. They TUNE out really easily, entertain themselves in their mind and daydream. My kiddo’s can hyperfocus on lego’s, video games, and drawing but they are still ADD-inattentive. It is a tough call to make because if your son has language issues he should have lower verbal scores and higher non-verbal scores. Is that the kind of split you are seeing in the subtest scatter?