Negotiating with Psychologist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I want an official list of the tests on the letterhead from the psychologist office. I may need to share a document like this with the school, or need it for some other purpose. Have any of you proceeded forward with just your own unofficial list of tests, without a signed on letterhead document?

This is not a thing that is commonly done, so I doubt anyone has "proceeded forward" in this way. But if all the new psych needs is a list of tests so they don't repeat them, I don't know why that would need to be on official letterhead. And I can't think of any reason why you would need this type of documentation for other purposes. How many times are you planning to have your child tested within one year (which is the span that tests cannot be repeated)?

I'm a psychologist, and I would want to see all previous testing. We're used to giving second opinions so seeing someone else's report won't bias us. Personally, I wouldn't want to take on an assessment case knowing that the parent is intentionally withholding information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I want an official list of the tests on the letterhead from the psychologist office. I may need to share a document like this with the school, or need it for some other purpose. Have any of you proceeded forward with just your own unofficial list of tests, without a signed on letterhead document?

This is not a thing that is commonly done, so I doubt anyone has "proceeded forward" in this way. But if all the new psych needs is a list of tests so they don't repeat them, I don't know why that would need to be on official letterhead. And I can't think of any reason why you would need this type of documentation for other purposes. How many times are you planning to have your child tested within one year (which is the span that tests cannot be repeated)?

I'm a psychologist, and I would want to see all previous testing. We're used to giving second opinions so seeing someone else's report won't bias us. Personally, I wouldn't want to take on an assessment case knowing that the parent is intentionally withholding information.

Was coming here to write something similar. There is a reason why the psychologist won’t provide only a list of the tests without the scores. Both psychologists you’re working with are acting ethically and thoughtfully. If the retest is really going to show something different, you should not be trying to conceal the original scores. The second tester will know how to interpret all of it.
TBH, it’s a red flag to me that you’re trying to control the flow of information so much.

[Anonymous]

OP, would you go to an attorney and tell them you wanted advice on a legal situation but you didn’t want to give them all the previous facts? Or ask a judge to make a ruling with only partial information?

I know the situation feels different because it’s your child but these are professionals who are both following very appropriate professional standards. You cannot tell them what you think professional procedures should be just because you want it a certain way.

Sorry if you are struggling with whatever anxiety or challenge is going on, but you need to move forward in the best interest of your child without trying to tell professionals how you want them to practice.

[Anonymous]

OP here. This particular psychologist has a policy of never redacting information. I wish I had asked questions about redacting information for various audiences (medical, school, etc), but here we are.
It sounds like from reading your posts that we only need to worry about retesting the same IQ test if it is done within 12 months? In that case, I will not worry about it. The new test will probably happen around 14 months. If someone could confirm this I would appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

OP thinks the second psychologist will be biased against her kid after seeing the initial set of low scores and he'll get low scores again. Or maybe he'll just be "sick" on that day, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This particular psychologist has a policy of never redacting information. I wish I had asked questions about redacting information for various audiences (medical, school, etc), but here we are.
It sounds like from reading your posts that we only need to worry about retesting the same IQ test if it is done within 12 months? In that case, I will not worry about it. The new test will probably happen around 14 months. If someone could confirm this I would appreciate it.

I can’t remember the length of time between testing but if you are trying to keep the previous round of testing secret, it won’t work. Kids often say something that is a giveaway that the tasks are familiar. This will lead the tester to wonder why you didn’t disclose previous results. I would instead disclose the previous report and explain why you have concerns about the validity of the results. I did this with my son and sure enough he tested much higher the 2nd time. It didn’t bias the tester in the least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I want an official list of the tests on the letterhead from the psychologist office. I may need to share a document like this with the school, or need it for some other purpose. Have any of you proceeded forward with just your own unofficial list of tests, without a signed on letterhead document?

No...no one will take an unofficial list. Why wouldn't you just share what you have and give the caveat of why you are seeking to retest with a different tester?

We have a full neuropsych that we may have to retest once our DC overcomes a a significant health challenge because we have been told the appearance of this challenge can also appear as a comorbidity that she was diagnosed with. We will fully disclose it if we have to go down that road. They aren't cheap!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This particular psychologist has a policy of never redacting information. I wish I had asked questions about redacting information for various audiences (medical, school, etc), but here we are.
It sounds like from reading your posts that we only need to worry about retesting the same IQ test if it is done within 12 months? In that case, I will not worry about it. The new test will probably happen around 14 months. If someone could confirm this I would appreciate it.

Sounds like you have a good psychologist who follows ethical and legal guidelines - good for them!

Why do you need certain information to be redacted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This particular psychologist has a policy of never redacting information. I wish I had asked questions about redacting information for various audiences (medical, school, etc), but here we are.
It sounds like from reading your posts that we only need to worry about retesting the same IQ test if it is done within 12 months? In that case, I will not worry about it. The new test will probably happen around 14 months. If someone could confirm this I would appreciate it.

Sounds like you have a good psychologist who follows ethical and legal guidelines - good for them!

Why do you need certain information to be redacted?

Not op, but I have asked for a neuropsych to share with the school without family medical history. That’s redacting and I have seen that other parents have gotten similar reports for their kids.

I also asked for the psychologist to screen my child for something but to not include it in the report and just tell me the results orally. I did this in advance of moving forward with them, so it wasn’t redacted but it was omitted from the report. The screening was to inform their therapy, and was not about anything academic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This particular psychologist has a policy of never redacting information. I wish I had asked questions about redacting information for various audiences (medical, school, etc), but here we are.
It sounds like from reading your posts that we only need to worry about retesting the same IQ test if it is done within 12 months? In that case, I will not worry about it. The new test will probably happen around 14 months. If someone could confirm this I would appreciate it.

Sounds like you have a good psychologist who follows ethical and legal guidelines - good for them!

Why do you need certain information to be redacted?

Not op, but I have asked for a neuropsych to share with the school without family medical history. That’s redacting and I have seen that other parents have gotten similar reports for their kids.

I also asked for the psychologist to screen my child for something but to not include it in the report and just tell me the results orally. I did this in advance of moving forward with them, so it wasn’t redacted but it was omitted from the report. The screening was to inform their therapy, and was not about anything academic.

I have had medical and family info omitted from the school version of a report. That is different than omitting the results of testing though.

[Anonymous]

Could you not just redact a pdf yourself if you’re not into sharing info with school or whomever?

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This particular psychologist has a policy of never redacting information. I wish I had asked questions about redacting information for various audiences (medical, school, etc), but here we are.
It sounds like from reading your posts that we only need to worry about retesting the same IQ test if it is done within 12 months? In that case, I will not worry about it. The new test will probably happen around 14 months. If someone could confirm this I would appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This particular psychologist has a policy of never redacting information. I wish I had asked questions about redacting information for various audiences (medical, school, etc), but here we are.
It sounds like from reading your posts that we only need to worry about retesting the same IQ test if it is done within 12 months? In that case, I will not worry about it. The new test will probably happen around 14 months. If someone could confirm this I would appreciate it.

Sounds like you have a good psychologist who follows ethical and legal guidelines - good for them!

Why do you need certain information to be redacted?

Not op, but I have asked for a neuropsych to share with the school without family medical history. That’s redacting and I have seen that other parents have gotten similar reports for their kids.

I also asked for the psychologist to screen my child for something but to not include it in the report and just tell me the results orally. I did this in advance of moving forward with them, so it wasn’t redacted but it was omitted from the report. The screening was to inform their therapy, and was not about anything academic.

That makes sense. But I can't understand what the purpose of redacting test scores would be? Has OP answered this question?

[Anonymous]

Find another psychologist and do NOT mention you had your child tested previously. Don't provide any documentation to the new psychologist that lists previous testing or test scores since you said it will be over 12 months.

I am a school psychologist who a son with special needs and was looking for a post I found helpful a couple of weeks ago and saw your post. While I will be the first to admit some school psychologists are not the greatest, at times our IQ testing is often conducted under better conditions as compared to going and doing extended testing on one or two very long days. I can go get a kid from his classroom and if the kid says I was sick all weekend or obviously has a cold I turn around and walk them right back to class and will wait a week if needed. Last month I went to get a kid and he just seemed down. Teacher and parent didn't report that, so I asked what was up and I find out night before kid had just lost a playoff little league baseball game. Kid obviously didn't feel into testing so we chatted about little league and walked him back to class.

If I am testing a kid who needs a lot of breaks I draw three boxes and say we are going to do three activities (subtests in actuality) and you can get a sticker in the boxes for each one and once three stickers are there then we are going to play a game or/and walk to the garden. Maybe that is it until the next day and I go get the next kid.

Sometimes I start by playing a game of uno or rush hour junior to see how kids approach a problem - do they get easily frustrated at first so might need to start IQ testing with an easier starting point to get their confidence built up, do they try different strategies, etc.

Most school psychologists probably aren't as picky about what day and how long to test because our caseloads are often overwhelming but I enjoy getting some steps in and walking around campus so I never mind walking to a classroom to get a student, walking to my office and walking the student back to class within a few minutes. A couple teacher get annoyed with me for the interruptions but I feel like with IQ test results I want to give the child the opportunity to do their best. I got a student who I was doing a triennial for and the IQ results from three years ago were unimpressive. Kid was not very motivated and not talkative. So we played a bunch of games and the kid could demonstrated some surprisingly really good strategy in UNO, could think three steps ahead to solve rush hour strategy and when I asked the kid what they were into named an area in science. I put on a kids YouTube video on that topic and the kid opens up and says a comment that turned my head and when I asked how they knew that they explained in pretty complex vocabulary a scientific concept and how two abstract things were connected. I taught the kid a multiplication trick to multiply by 25's and they got it. Of course once we started testing, kid was into it and did markedly better.

Some reports from outside providers are truly outstanding while too many are really bad. Usually it is let's give the kid 100 subtests and see what's low instead of being really selective and having the student give quality responses. Then you know if you have a couple of low scores there is an issue. Or let me give my assistant the job to administer tests and I will write up the results. Don't get me started on the ones that tell parents, take your kid who has been on ADHD medication for three years off ADHD medication because the psychologist wants to test them without medication. Why would you want a lower IQ score on your kid's record?

Sorry long post OP but it is totally wrong the person wrote that snarky comment about placing a bet on your kids intelligence. So just wanted to chime in to say good job for believing in your kid. If you don't who will?

[Anonymous]

Not sure where you are located. I hear you on the not wanting your kid classed as ID because he doesn’t know how to test-take. Get a good psychologist. Jessica Hasson in Gaithersburg is excellent. Your kid likely needs some rapport building before starting the test.