My seven year old son was diagnosed with a learning disability. It is most likely languaged based but no one has put a label on it yet. He has been tested at the school and privately. I was very unhappy with the private testing that 6 months later we are taking him to an educational specialist (PHD). What is the difference between a neurological test and an educational one? Also I thought that the neurophys. tested his IQ but found out that is not true. I really want to get the the root of his problems to make sure he is in the proper placement at public school or private. Any help will be very appreciated. Also if anyone could give me some names of tests which should be proformed I would be appreciative.
Re: Confusion
Repeat testing within such a short time may invalidate the results; post the names of the tests your child went thru most recently(dates, too), then suggestions of different tests may be made. Why were you unhappy with the recent testing(s)?
Confusion
Thanks for getting back to me. The tests included Differential NEPSY, WJ-III, Subtests from the CMS, the BNT, Developmental test of Visual Motor Integration, Developmental History Questionaire, BRIEF,. THe findings were very much un reliable because as the Pyscologist quoted “Jaon presented as a reluctant and uncooperative young boy who did not develop a rapport with the examiner”. She also wrote that “the following test results may underestimate his maximal ability”. This shows me that any finding she had were not a good picture of my son.
He was labeled as LD in kindergarten but noone has ever pin pointed what the LD is.IE: Dyslexia, Auditory Processing issues, etc.
Lay person here but I’ll try to help you sort out the different testing.
A psychologist or neuropsychologist can administer a psycho-ed. or neuropsych. evaluation. A comprehensive evaluation should include IQ testing as well as academic achievement testing and emotional testing. They are looking for discrepancies between intellectual potential, achievement in school as well as emotional factors that can influence how your child functions. Gaps in these results may trigger an investigation into language processing, auditory processing , sensory or motor issues that may require additional testing by a speech pathologist or OT.
A neurologist is an MD who is interested in brain function as well, but from a more physical viewpoint. Our neurologist looked at certain motor tests, as well as some memory tests, but didn’t dig into the academic or emotional areas.
There is some overlap in what many of these professionals can look for, but if its learning related issue a psychologist would be the place to start usually.
I’m sure others on this board can help clarify!