2nd neuropsych very different from 1st.

[Anonymous]

We had a neurospsych for now 12 yo when he was 7 and we lived in fla. At the time he was dx with asd1 and adhd. I have posted about this quite a few times bc I never totally understood the asd piece but i assumed, well, they know and i guess I just dont understand asd - and saw everything through that lens.

Today we got the result of a second one we had done in nyc and he did not find asd at all but found adhd, said ds scored super high on all the assessment tests - except has slow processing speed. This evaluator is v well regarded in nyc.

Not sure what I'm asking or saying really except that it feels weird to have been seeing my child and his struggles through one lens for five whole years, that maybe wasnt the right one... still processing myself.

Also curious if this is anyone else's child's profile?

[Anonymous]

I’ve had three neuropsychs myself (one in elementary, one in high school, one in college). My IQ varied by over 30 points across administrations. It helped me realize our abilities and capacities are much less fixed and more fluid than I’d understood.

[Anonymous]

My 13yo has a similar profile and also has an ADHD diagnosis. We’ve been told by multiple clinicians that kids who are very bright but have a discrepancy in one or two functional areas will often act out, because they know something is up but lack the maturity to express what’s going or find a way to cope with it.

[Anonymous]

My son had a neuropsych at 8 that diagnosed LD and likely ADHD. At 11, he was retested and they ruled out ADHD, said his LD was remediated and his IQ had jumped 30 points. Neuropsychs are very helpful but they are also a snapshot in time. I’m glad I didn’t limit his opportunities based on the first eval.

[Anonymous]

I really appreciated this article from last week's new york times about the blurry nature of diagnosis of mental illnesses....

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opinion/adhd-autism-depression-diagnoses.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really appreciated this article from last week's new york times about the blurry nature of diagnosis of mental illnesses....

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opinion/adhd-autism-depression-diagnoses.html

Totally agree, this was a great article.

The author says:

Scientific evidence accumulated from multiple lines of inquiry, including genetics, brain imaging and circuity, and measures of the brain’s electrical activity, shows that while there are biological irregularities associated with mental illnesses, the patterns we see in these scientific studies don’t neatly match up with diagnoses in the D.S.M. For instance, two people might have a similar genetic profile, but one will be clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder and the other with schizophrenia. Neither genetics nor brain scans can distinguish a person with depression, A.D.H.D. or autism from one without.

That doesn’t mean that psychiatric diagnoses are meaningless labels or arbitrary symptom collections. They are practical tools that provide a shared language to describe very real patterns of distress and impairment and can help shape treatment. In practice, clinicians use them flexibly rather than rigidly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son had a neuropsych at 8 that diagnosed LD and likely ADHD. At 11, he was retested and they ruled out ADHD, said his LD was remediated and his IQ had jumped 30 points. Neuropsychs are very helpful but they are also a snapshot in time. I’m glad I didn’t limit his opportunities based on the first eval.

Yes, these evaluations are a snapshot in time. I am an SLP who is part of a team of evaluators for the court system, so I often get an individual’s entire school record and any private evaluations they have completed to review. Some tests for Autism and ADHD are checklists that are confusing for parents and gen Ed teachers to complete and the behaviors/impact of those conditions overlap quite a bit—one rater’s restricted and repetitive motor movements (stimming; Autism) are another rater’s fidgeting (ADHD). Some tests are really screening measures, like the GARS, but get over-interpreted as definite diagnostic measures. In my opinion, a single professional shouldn’t diagnose Autism based on parent report or an observation in a clinical setting; observations with peers and in a naturalistic setting are critical pieces to assessing Autism. When I review school records, kids often have conflicting or evolving diagnoses from private providers and changing eligibilities from the school system (developmental delay to speech and language impairment to autism to intellectual disability is a surprisingly common pattern).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a neurospsych for now 12 yo when he was 7 and we lived in fla. At the time he was dx with asd1 and adhd. I have posted about this quite a few times bc I never totally understood the asd piece but i assumed, well, they know and i guess I just dont understand asd - and saw everything through that lens.

Today we got the result of a second one we had done in nyc and he did not find asd at all but found adhd, said ds scored super high on all the assessment tests - except has slow processing speed. This evaluator is v well regarded in nyc.

Not sure what I'm asking or saying really except that it feels weird to have been seeing my child and his struggles through one lens for five whole years, that maybe wasnt the right one... still processing myself.

Also curious if this is anyone else's child's profile?

You should ask the evaluator about this and how to put this together/understand/ get their opinion/insight.
I am biased, but I am inclined to see the 2nd as more accurate. Also, presumably you deployed stategies based on the initial one; perhaps it was enough to allow your kiddo to develop in such a way they no longer meet the criteria? Or else one is incorrect (likely the first based on what I know, based on the age).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son had a neuropsych at 8 that diagnosed LD and likely ADHD. At 11, he was retested and they ruled out ADHD, said his LD was remediated and his IQ had jumped 30 points. Neuropsychs are very helpful but they are also a snapshot in time. I’m glad I didn’t limit his opportunities based on the first eval.

Yes, these evaluations are a snapshot in time. I am an SLP who is part of a team of evaluators for the court system, so I often get an individual’s entire school record and any private evaluations they have completed to review. Some tests for Autism and ADHD are checklists that are confusing for parents and gen Ed teachers to complete and the behaviors/impact of those conditions overlap quite a bit—one rater’s restricted and repetitive motor movements (stimming; Autism) are another rater’s fidgeting (ADHD). Some tests are really screening measures, like the GARS, but get over-interpreted as definite diagnostic measures. In my opinion, a single professional shouldn’t diagnose Autism based on parent report or an observation in a clinical setting; observations with peers and in a naturalistic setting are critical pieces to assessing Autism. When I review school records, kids often have conflicting or evolving diagnoses from private providers and changing eligibilities from the school system (developmental delay to speech and language impairment to autism to intellectual disability is a surprisingly common pattern).

That pattern doesn't seem surprising to me?