I have a 10 year old son who has been struggling acedemically since he entered the school system. My wife and I recognized his learning disability early on. We had been living in the Bahamas and moved 4 years ago because the educational system was not equiped to handle children with real learning challenges. Upon arriving in Palm Beach County we enrolled him in public school based on our understanding that the US public school system was required to assist children with learning challenges and were well equiped. Unfortunately we were disappointed and we moved our son into a small private school. Well this turned out to be a mistake because there were only about 100 kids in the school and his class had 10 children, 8 of which were girls. After a year we moved him into a larger private school which is very acedemically focused and socially balanced. The teachers are aware of our sons challenges and they provide him with additional time for tests and other latitude. Our concern is that we do not fully understand what his exact issues are and if we are truly doing what is best for him. We have discussed taking him to a specialist for an evaluation but honestly don’t know which type would be best and which doctors should be considered. He struggles with all work but provided we spend hours and hours working with him in English, Science and the other non-Math subjects he seems to get by. In Math it is as if we are speaking a foriegn language. We will cover a concept and five minutes later he has lost the idea. It can take five conseqecutive days for him to finally get it. Once he gets it he has it but it is a very long and slow process. He had been on Adederall XR for two years but our son lost too much weight and became very emotional and anti-social. In December we took him off the medication due to the side effects we were experiencing and the recent FDA alerts. Since he has been off he performance has declined. We are trying to determine who would be the best person/professional to see so that we can fully understand our son’s disability and get his the right help. Any suggestions?
For the educational part you will want to have him tested by a Neuropsychologist. This person would give tests that will give you information across all functional domains. http://www.brainsource.com/domains.htm - this site gives you information on what the functional domains are.
As for the ADHD or whatever, you may want to take him to a pediatric psychiatrist who understands the broad mental health issues of children. There are medications other than Adderall that may help your sons focus.