What tests are needed

In our Ohio district, we call the team an I.A.T. (Intervention Assessment Team), but I’m sure it serves the same purpose. The first thing I feel like I need to tell you is that I (I am not a teacher, but my husband is) was startled to find that there were about fifteen people at this meeting, most of whom had never met our son. Our school district claims this approach is an effort to get the “best minds” together in one place to brainstorm “solutions”. Most of them seemed very bored, and none offered any memorable contributions. Our “assistant principal” consumed a very large bagel/cream cheese sandwich throughout the entire meeting, which we found both disrespectful and unprofessional. Hopefully, your experience won’t be like this. I do know of one enterprising young mother who after having been down this road several times, invited a dozen of her closest relatives, friends, and neighbors to such a meeting. The school district reluctantly got the point. But I digress…

What we did last May (‘02) was go the meeting and listen to what “the team” had to say. Some of it seemed accurate (in terms of the test results; the school psychologist used the WISC-IIIR in conjunction with other psychological assessments), but a lot of it didn’t match up with what we knew about our son. We politely shared our feelings, and then said, “That’s fine, but we’ll go ahead and have him evaluated privately and get back to you.”

That’s what we did, which is not nearly as easy as it sounds. First we had to find an QUALIFIED psychologist who could do accurate testing and produce a cogent report based on that testing. There are two here in Central Ohio - one at our Children’s Hospital who has a bad reputation with regard to his ability to relate his results to parents, and another one. Both were booked for months and months. So I targeted the other one, and just called and called, and politely begged and begged. He is a very caring individual, and got us in as soon as he could (the beginning of August). His exhaustive results (based on two days of testing) were strikingly different from the school district’s (keep in mind that the school psychologist probably only has a few instruments at her disposal; they generally are unable to give the TOVA, an instrument which measures attention issues, and many other important assessments). That’s why it is important to get the “whole picture” when the school’s results just don’t ring true. In our son’s case, the school had come up with a very low IQ for him; which seemed impossible given how bright we know he is. Actually, he has a normal-high normal IQ, but is afflicted with both expressive and receptive language disorders complicated by a history of hearing loss.

Bottom line: we went back for the Multi-Factored Evaluation Meeting in September, accompanied by Kevin’s pediatric neuropsycologist, who was so able to back up his reported results that the school agreed on the spot to write an appropriate IEP. This has since been written and implemented.

Now the battle to hold their feet to the fire to get them to deliver on the promised services begins. Good luck! May your road go smoothly…

Letting the school district “experts” have their say is a good thing. Parents have the right to disagree with the findings and ask for an independent evaluation at public expense.

I’ve paid for two private evaluations as a parent (also a teacher) because it wasn’t worth the fight over who would do it and what tests would be administered. I also wanted to control the results. If school pays, they “own” the right to have the results. If parent pays, then the results are “owned” by them. They decide to include or not include in the school file.

I think it is wise to let school test first and see what shakes.

I agree with you ..let the school test your child first. You know your child best.I would recommend calling your insurance company to see if they pay for any testing. This way you are ready to have a outside evaluation done without paying the cost.If you can not afford the outside evaluation (if needed)..ask the school.

I called my daughters Dr. and asked where I could take her for processing issues.I was lucky to get a referral and see a specialist in the audiologist field.The school labled her ADHD. At the same time, I had her tested for ADHD .As a mom,I knew that she did not have ADHD.I had to prove this to the school.Her processing issues also masked some appearances as ADHD.For example, She would not hear all the directions and would start to look around,tap her arm or foot.She would act like a child with a short attention span.She could not focus ..it was more fustration of falling behind the class. It was more involved but the bottom line is I knew my daughter and after detailed testing…Her IEP is now properly done for a child with Aud.processing.

I agree, ask for a TEAM evaluation first. Be as specific as possible at the meeting regarding your observations and concerns- these will guide the evaluation and the measures used. If the child is having trouble achieving in academic subjects, than you will want a psychological and an educational evaluation. The psychological should look at verbal and nonverbal cognitive abilities (ie., IQ), learning style, and any behavioral issues that may impact on learning (ie., attention). The educational should include a comprehensive evaluation of academic skills (reading, writing, math). If the child is having particular trouble in one area- request an additional measure that investigates that area further so that the specific weaknesses can be highlighted. You say that your child has processing issues- I would ask if they can include measures that specifically examine visual processing and auditory processing of information- they should include memory as well. You should also consider a speech/language evaluation- particularly if the child is demonstrating difficulties in auditory processing or any other language-related area. If fine motor (handwriting, drawing, etc) or sensory issues (distractible in noisy environments, doesn’t like certain textures, etc) are a concern, request an occupational therapy evaluation. So what they come up with…then decide whether an independent evaluation is necessary. Good luck!

I’m sure the cost of testing varies by geographical location, types of assessments, etc. The pediatric neuropsychologist we chose gave our son about fifteen different assessments, including the “DAS, WISC-III, TOVA, BNT, VMI, ROCF, WRAMA, TONI-3 (which finally gave us an accurate IQ score), TOMAL, CVLT-C, WCST, GPT, WJ-III, and the BASC and BRIEF, both parent and teacher versions”. Most of these were not available from the school district. (If anyone needs to know, I can spell out what these acronyms stand for.)

Our out-of-pocket costs for this evaluation was was $652. Our insurance paid $848, after a bit of a battle, as the provider was out-of-network (there was no provider in network who could actually see our son during this calendar year).

We, too, were concerned about ADD, as it had been mentioned to us by school personnel. Children with Central Auditory Processing Disorders and/or Expressive/Receptive Language Disabilities often mask as ADD-afflicted. We didn’t prefer one diagnosis over another; we just didn’t want to medicate him unnecessarily. It turned out he scored quite well on the TOVA, indicating no ADD.

I should also let you know that earlier in the summer, another private psychologist insisted our son did have ADD. I’m glad we waited for the complete evaluation by a specialist in the field.

Anyway, good luck, and be ready to “fight the good fight”!

JAO,
WOW! You and I could almost be interchangeable with our stories!! Mine started 3 years ago and our pediatrician wanted to prescribe Ritalin after I gave her a note from the teacher! Are you in NY? I would love to hear from you if you would to talk, email me at ErinKC68 @aol.com. Good luck to everyone!

Kathy,
I have been to meetings that have had so many people, we had to reschedule to allow enough time and had to bring in extra chairs. DO NOT let the “all-knowing” district personel intimidate you. Bring someone with you to listen to the meeting and give you another impression of what happened. Take notes and make them stop and answer ANY question that you may have, whether you think it’s relavant or not. Do not let them rush you through this either. It is very difficult to reschedule these meetings and YOUR time is as valuable as theirs. Good luck!

Thank you all for the input. I will write Mon. night and would like to hear your eval. on the meeting and testing suggested. Thank you.

Erin
I am in New York and 3 years ago I also started down this path. My results on the tova were inconclusive so we tried meds but no one could see a difference when she was on the drugs or when she was off so we took her off . The results of her private eval were much different than thd districts but they stipulated to all the recommendations of the neuropsychologist . I am wondering whether we should take her back to the private guy for her 3 yr triennial . Although we are no longer on the one insurance he accepts do you think it would be better to use him since he knows her and he was good . Or take a chance in finding someone on our plan . His evaluatiion was $ 1500.ooDo you have someone you like ?
thanks Cathy

I’m sorry, but I’m not in NY and not to whom you posed the question, but from my similar experience, I would say absolutely take her back to the private neuropsych who knows her well, if you liked him and thought he did a good job. $1500 was our guy’s fee, too. Even though he wasn’t on our insurance plan, after meeting our deductible for out-of-network and being denied for a few of the office visits, our insurance (United Healthcare) ended up paying $848, which I didn’t really think was a bad result. Most insurance companies have some kind of out-of-network filing provision.

In Central Ohio, there are only two of these guys, and both are extremely difficult to get into for the first time. I feel bad about that when talking to parents just embarking on this road, because although I do recommend the neuropsych who did such a good job for us, I know it’s next to impossible to get into see him in a timely manner (who wants to wait six or more months to find out what the deal is with their child?).

Cathy,
I am in a similar position right now and I think I have to let the school eval uate her first, then request a neuropsych (this time I will make sure it’s on THEIR nickel!). I had difficultities with the Director of Sp Ed but he has left and I’m hoping things will be easier this time around.
We are in Upstate NY and we went to the Neuropsychologist at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. They were excellent and helped explain things very well (after 2 phone calls!). We got in in less than 3 months and they were only $600. We are from the Syracuse area and couldn’t get into anyone there for more than 6 months ( even the waiting list for cancelations was extremely long) and we decided the drive was well worth it.

Good luck and I hope yoou find this message .