Testing for LD (or maybe ADHD Inattentive Type)

[Anonymous]

OP -- have you read this poster's experience with CogMed?

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/120408.page

Just thought you might find it interested if you hadn't seen it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:stop trying to be two different people. It's obviously the same poster.

Why do these people feel compelled to post on Special Needs. I wish they'd stick to General Parenting where they belong.

[Anonymous]

9:03 here. Like the PP, we've participated in the NIMH research and found it to be an incredibly positive experience. http://intramural.nimh.nih.gov/chp/adhd/index.html . We had our one-year follow up last September. I've posted about our experience before and this is what I wrote.
DS was 6.5 when we started the study and had been diagnosed with ADHD about 6 months prior to that. We were interested in the study, not just because we think this kind of research is important, but because we had done other studies where we learned a lot more about what was going on with our kids. The researchers also suggested areas we might focus on in order to help DS (ie, focus on exercised improving executive functioning, books to read, websites, etc.).

When we arrived at NIMH for this particular study, DS went with one group of researchers and I went with another. They interviewed me and took a detailed history. For DS, they gave him a number of tests, mostly on the computer. They realize that these tests can be very boring and it can be hard to keep the kids engaged to complete them. To help motivate the kids to get through it, they provide "prizes" for completing portions of the tests. My DS was very motivated to earn those prizes. The team that worked with my DS was great. They were very engaging, interactive and my normally loathe to separate DS was more than happy to go with them. They also gave him snacks that he liked (they checked with me in the beginning to see if there was anything off limits).

DS did not join me for the debrief (he was happy to play video games with one of the staffers). The team was very sensitive to the fact that it's not easy to hear your child has challenges. They also explained the tests, the results and the interpretations. One of them was an intelltigence test and my DS scored very low. They were quick to point out that this wasn't an accurate measure of his intelligence but was part of the ADHD. The test was boring, DS was sometimes inattentive and didn't really hear the question (and gave a wrong answer) and that he sometimes forgot which button he was supposed to push and kept pushing the wrong button even though he knew the correct answer. But, he was motivated to get through the test in order to earn the prizes.

I don't know what kind of testing the psychologist did to arrive at an ADHD diagnosis for your DS but our initial ADHD eval was done by a neurodevelopmental pediatrician and it was very interactive. I've heard some testing is mostly computer based and that it can be pretty boring. I don't have any experience with that kind but I do think if this team diagnoses ADHD, it's accurate. They've obvsioulsy seen all types of kids and their goal is to make sure their participants do, in fact, have ADHD so that their study is valid. They have every reason to screen out normal or borderline cases because it would skew their results. The report they sent me a few weeks later was well written and has been of great benefit to us in the IEP process. We continued on to the second part of the study (brain MRI) but we were given every opportunity to opt out. When I told DS that we were going back, he was very excited to see them again (and earn prizes). DS also has sensory issues and I was very surprised that with we were able to persuade him to go into the MRI machine. Prior to going, we'd listened to MRI sounds in headphones so he knew what noises to expect. He had some resistance to laying down in the machine initially but when he requested headphones (in addition to earplugs), the staff jumped to get them. Once he got in, he was fine, especially when they started showing March of the Penguins. We were able to see images of his brain there and they emailed the pictures to me later. Using his pictures, they also explained what their research to date was showing about brain development and ADHD. Very interesting stuff.

[Anonymous]

I realize this may have been answered before but at what age did you all start to see signs of ADD?

[Anonymous]

19:34 here. We had no reason to suspect our DS had ADHD until he entered kindergarten. He'd been in a nicely structred in-home family daycare and attended very well in circle time (the care provider was a former K/1 teacher). He seemed a little forgetful and sometimes he went off on tangents but nothing outside the ordinary. Looking back, there really wasn't any way we could have known any earlier than what we did. In fact, we're very lucky we caught it when we did. If a kid isn't obviously hyperactive, they can easily slip under the radar.