Preschool teacher recommends developmental evaluation of 3 year old

[Anonymous]

Well said, 11:01.

My son's preK teacher also gave me the heads up about getting DS evaluated. I will be forever beholden to her for doing so. It's not easy to deliver such messages and I ranted and raved and complained about her on DCUM at the time too.

My son was diagnosed with AS when he was 4 by the school and confirmed by a developmental pediatrician, neuropsych... Doing great now but his preK teacher is the one who got the balling rolling. The real hero in the process.

[Anonymous]

My DS was 2.5 when I first took him to get evaluated by OT and developmental pediatrician. Yep, SPD all the way. I am grateful I got services only on as they taught both him and us how to help him. If in doubt, get a second opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The evaluation is what got you the IEP. If you disagree with it, get another one privately. It sounds like you disagree with the evaluation and therefore you feel the IEP is not necessary.

No. I feel the behavioral and OT evaluations had merit and they alone are enough to justify the IEP. The neuropsych eval was a joke b/c the cognitive/academic test they administered is not approved for a child my son's age. Seriously, how many times do I have to say that? That is not my opinion, it is a fact after conducting research into what age groups it has been approved for and been found to be statistically valid. I object to the fact that the psychologist pulled some random disorder out of the DSM to justify counseling services under the IEP when it was not even necessary to allow him to have the services that he truly needs.

[Anonymous]

For the 1000th time, if you disagree with the evaluation, tests used, diagnosis, whatever, get another opinion with a developmental pediatrician.

[Anonymous]

Our daughter has SPD and, looking back, there are behaviors that she had as a toddler that I would recognize if I saw them again in another child. A preschool teacher sees a lot of kids and I don't think her recommendation of getting further testing by a professional was out of line. Our daughter is now 11 and doing great in school/life. Early intervention was extremely helpful. Don't forego it because you are scared of a diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I, for one, resent PP 10:33 calling specialists as "idiots", "quacks", etc. Changing schools will not change problems. It is better to address whatever issues your DC has now than when he goes to K, bombarded with homework, peer pressure, etc.

Resent it all you want. It's my opinion that they are not all created equal. I will uneqivocally stand by my opinion that the psychologist who evaluated our son is a quack and that his reports are not worth the paper they were printed on. He couldn't even articulate his methods, his results, or translate into plain English any concerns that he held about our son. Why in God's name should I trust someone like that? I would be fired from my job if I gave a presentation like that.

And the fact that you assert that Kindergarteners are bombarded with "homework" only goes to prove that my fears about our public education system's obsession with testing and standards are well founded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the 1000th time, if you disagree with the evaluation, tests used, diagnosis, whatever, get another opinion with a developmental pediatrician.

I am. I stated earlier that we are on the waitlist for a developmental ped at Children's. Every single one has a wait list. You can't just waltz in the door when you feel like it.

[Anonymous]

Well it is your decision, but first of all most preschool teachers do not have a degree in early childhood education. So I would take anything with a grain of salt. If yours does...great. I had this happen to me when my child was 4. The teacher tried to tell my that my child might have autism. She didn't specifically say autism, but the signs she was seeing had autism written all over it. She wanted me to get a very expensive evaluation for my child. I said no, we left the school. Fast forward a few years, no autism at all. I would wait, and see how the year goes, but it is up to you.

[Anonymous]

OP here, and I didn't mean to sound like I am attacking the teacher or that I don't believe in early intervention. It probably would have been more accurate to say I'm sad to think my kid needs, it, but I wholeheartedly embrace the idea that getting your kid prompt assistance when it's required is the right thing to do. (FWIW, my 15 month old daughter has hypotonia and wears glasses, and for both of these issues we got her very early assistance that I am grateful for.) I guess I'm just not sure how much of this issue is coming from my son's adjustment to a classroom versus how much of it is an underlying condition. From my understanding, any kind of diagnosis requires a child to display problematic behaviors in more than one setting, and my kid is just not that disruptive at home (nor have I gotten a clear indication from his teacher that he's actually disruptive in class; more that he's just inattentive). We're agreed to get the developmental coordinator to observe--that's why I suggested it!--so we'll know more after she gives us feedback. But I think overall it's tough that there seem to be two schools of thought, most deriving from people's differing experiences: 1) that intervening as soon as any red flag arises is crucial and 2) that allowing a kid who is not showing significant issues to mature is the best way to go.

[Anonymous]

OP, in the end, just go with your gut. My DS who was super sweet and loving at home apparently was quite disruptive in the classroom. I would've never known that had we not done the evaluation. It helped us outline his primary areas of need and get him help ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well it is your decision, but first of all most preschool teachers do not have a degree in early childhood education. So I would take anything with a grain of salt. If yours does...great. I had this happen to me when my child was 4. The teacher tried to tell my that my child might have autism. She didn't specifically say autism, but the signs she was seeing had autism written all over it. She wanted me to get a very expensive evaluation for my child. I said no, we left the school. Fast forward a few years, no autism at all. I would wait, and see how the year goes, but it is up to you.

Even if they do have the degree, I think you need to consider the individual teacher's background and own experiences. Does the teacher actually have children herself? If not, I tend to heavily discount what they say. I was once that person - had the degree but no kids - and I cringe what an idiot I was before having children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, in the end, just go with your gut. My DS who was super sweet and loving at home apparently was quite disruptive in the classroom. I would've never known that had we not done the evaluation. It helped us outline his primary areas of need and get him help ASAP.

I disagree about going with your gut. My gut looking back was just plain wrong. My kid was sweet and fine at home and sweet and fine at school except he did not engage with other children. No other problem behaviors so the teacher's gut was right. I just had no idea.

Great to hear you're going ahead with the eval. Best wishes!

[Anonymous]

My opinion is that 3-4 is the age where the children who are outliers and need extra help really become apparent. All the SN dc we know were identified/diagnosed in the 3s. We know a lot b/c my dd has been in several SN schools/classes.

[Anonymous]

OP, I have a few replies to specific comments that have been made.

I am very pro-early intervention and I have no patience for the wait-and-see approach but I don't see any huge red flags in what you have written. Is your child happy, learning, growing? These are important questions, too, when deciding to be evaluated. Despite what some people have said here, 3.5 is young for an ADHD evaluation and, unless he is showing a lot of very hyperactive behavior, it is quite possible that he won't get a diagnosis even if he in fact does have ADHD because there is a huge range of normal behavior, because kids change and develop, and because the evaluation process is indeed better suited for an older child. My child, to give in example has severe ADHD and was not diagnosed until age 6, despite several evaluations. The evaluators were not wrong before then, they certainly picked up on other issues that we worked on. But attention issues are complex and can be hard to diagnose in a younger child.

I understand that one of the PPs had a bad experience with her child's evaluation. I completely agree that it sounds inappropriate. But I would like to say that in the several years that I have been working with multiple therapists and clinicians and even school officials, this has not been my experience at all. Even in the therapies that I don't feel were particularly beneficial for us (OP), we almost exclusively came across very committed, hard-working individuals. Maybe I have been very lucky, probably I have, but I have also done my homework and gone to highly recommended folks, even when it has meant I have paid more money. I realize that not everyone can afford this. My husband would argue that we can't. But to me, it has been absolutely critical to work with people we trust. We have made many financial sacrifices but I consider them to have been very worthwhile.

Last, there are a lot of casual comments about ADHD on this and other threads that are very misleading. If you are worried I urge you to do some reading on the subject. It truly isn't about being an "active child" (I'd say my child is very average in this regard), nor is it about being able to sustain attention when listening to a story or music (my child is highly impaired and has remarkable attention, hyper-focus, with preferred activities including stories, etc), nor about being social or not being social. I am only giving my kid as an example because his characteristics contradict some of the popular stereotypes but, in truth, I think people who "know someone" with ADHD are sometimes the worst at identifying it in others if the child does not have the same profile. These children are very different from one another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I have a few replies to specific comments that have been made.

I am very pro-early intervention and I have no patience for the wait-and-see approach but I don't see any huge red flags in what you have written. Is your child happy, learning, growing? These are important questions, too, when deciding to be evaluated. Despite what some people have said here, 3.5 is young for an ADHD evaluation and, unless he is showing a lot of very hyperactive behavior, it is quite possible that he won't get a diagnosis even if he in fact does have ADHD because there is a huge range of normal behavior, because kids change and develop, and because the evaluation process is indeed better suited for an older child. My child, to give in example has severe ADHD and was not diagnosed until age 6, despite several evaluations. The evaluators were not wrong before then, they certainly picked up on other issues that we worked on. But attention issues are complex and can be hard to diagnose in a younger child.

I understand that one of the PPs had a bad experience with her child's evaluation. I completely agree that it sounds inappropriate. But I would like to say that in the several years that I have been working with multiple therapists and clinicians and even school officials, this has not been my experience at all. Even in the therapies that I don't feel were particularly beneficial for us (OP), we almost exclusively came across very committed, hard-working individuals. Maybe I have been very lucky, probably I have, but I have also done my homework and gone to highly recommended folks, even when it has meant I have paid more money. I realize that not everyone can afford this. My husband would argue that we can't. But to me, it has been absolutely critical to work with people we trust. We have made many financial sacrifices but I consider them to have been very worthwhile.

Last, there are a lot of casual comments about ADHD on this and other threads that are very misleading. If you are worried I urge you to do some reading on the subject. It truly isn't about being an "active child" (I'd say my child is very average in this regard), nor is it about being able to sustain attention when listening to a story or music (my child is highly impaired and has remarkable attention, hyper-focus, with preferred activities including stories, etc), nor about being social or not being social. I am only giving my kid as an example because his characteristics contradict some of the popular stereotypes but, in truth, I think people who "know someone" with ADHD are sometimes the worst at identifying it in others if the child does not have the same profile. These children are very different from one another.

Not OP, but this is a very helpful and informative post, especially the last paragraph. Thank you for that.