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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a parent, I would do the neuropsych, especially given the early language issues and the wide disparity between verbal and non-verbal ability.

IME with our DS, the neuropsych really teased apart areas where he had widely disparate abilities - 99%ile math reasoning but 30%ile math fluency.  He was extremely bright but underlying brain/neuropsych problems like slow processing and word finding difficulty and dysgraphia made doing computations with nevessary speed and accuracy ver difficult.

DS noticed how he could not do things like other kids and he became angry, depressed and anxious.  Two years of special instructions, tutors, and self-education about how his brain works has returned our happy optimistic boy to us.

Neuropsych was the key to understanding his strengths and weaknesses.  Without it, they just masked each other and he looked like an average kid with mood problems.  [/quote]

Great, thanks. Yes anything that can help us better understand him, and make him more self aware is going to help. Infact I am thinking neuropysch would be as valuable as ADOS if not more.

Our psychologist also mentioned cost as one reason not to got for it, saying it will run into thousands of dollars to tell us what we already know about his anxiety.

Do you mind sharing who you did it with and what was cost? Childrens has atleast a 6 month wait for neuro and 9 months for ADOS.[/quote]

In general, neuropsych is $3000+.

Your psych's dismissal of this is a red flag to me.  Neuropsych provides objective data and rules out other diagnoses (learning disabilities or issues, processing speed or memory problems).  Particularly with anxiety, it is important to consider what could be causing the anxiety -- underlying biochemistry? learning differences?  speed or memory problems?  language issues?  Difficulties in all those areas can cause anxiety, and in order to address the anxiety, you would have to address the underlying issues also not just medicate or do therapy.

Check what your insurance might reimburse.  If you can't afford it, consider what the school can do.  If your child is 10 and was in an IEP, he should have had a full psychological assessment which should have included IQ, full achievement testing, plus language, autism, ADHD and anxiety and depression and a functional behavior assessment.  He should have had this when he entered the IEP and before he was moved from the IEP to the 504 plan.  Do you have these results?  How recent are they?  Sometimes schools try to skimp on testing, but legally, they are obliged to do it if you are requesting an IEP and every 3 years on the IEP and if you have a "reasonable suspicion of disability" (i.e. a disorder, adverse educational impact and need for special instruction).  Schools skimp by doing just one or two tests or substituting "observation" for actual standardized objective testing.

If the school does the testing (which would be psych only as they typically do not have nueropsych resources), and you disagree with the results you have a right to ask the school system to pay for an IEE (independent educational evaluation) at a provider of your choice.  The main difference with the psych assessment and the neuropsych assessment is that the neuropsych typically does additional computer-based or standardized attention and executive function testing, not just behavioral checklists.  [/quote]

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