Neuropsychological exam

[aiden and kyra's mom]

Kyras school wants to do this before they do an IEP. She will be 3 in March, and they want it done before her third birthday if possible.

Have any of you had this done with your children? any advice or experiences?

[Mommy to Jaiden & Donovan]

Hi,
We also hail from MA, springfield area. Where are you located? My son is also going to be recieving a neuropsych exam. The pedi wants him to be screened for autism. On tuesday of this week I contacted the two doc offices closest to me that do this work, I am on waiting lists until May. My best advice to you is to start calling now, get on all the lists that you can. My son is currently in Early intervention, and his service coordinator gave me a list of Neuoroligists and Neuropsych that are recognized to diagnose Autism. They are in all of MA. If you would like the names drop me a mail or messege.
Kendra

[aiden and kyra's mom]

I am in Dudley Ma. She is having hers done through the school. I don't have to pay for it, nor do I have to call and get it scheduled (thank goodness!). The school will be taking care of it all.

How old is your son? My daughter is also in EI for speech delays. The school is looking to transition her and feel this will better help them know what to focus on.

They say her gross motor is also behind (akward gait) and her social emotional skills are behind (she doesn't make eye contact, and ignores everyone but me, plus she walks away to a new toy if someone comes to play with her.).

I think we will be having someone in Worcester do the eval, from what the school said.

[dmmetler]

I've had neuropsych exams done as part of my re-evals. For me, they usually consist of several standard tests, including verbal and non-verbal IQ tests, expressive and receptive language, and various tests focusing on my visual-spacial perception, hand-eye and eye-hand coordination, etc.

Effectively, in my experience, Neuropsychs simply do testing-and do it in depth. The good news is that they're MUCH more experienced and are better at telling what is an actual disability and what is fatigue, a bad day, or a child reluctant to participate. (I ended up doing my last NP exam over several sessions because fatigue was an issue for me and he wanted the scores to be valid). A NP should be able to assess your child non-verbally, and in my experience, usually know ASL.

The bad news is that a neuropsych probably will be a one-off-someone who tests your child and then never sees him/her again, reporting results back to the appropriate person or agency.

[Mommy to Jaiden & Donovan]

It's great that the school is helping out with your appointment. My son's pedi has referred him to the ones in our area and i've had to call to get put on appointment lists. My son turns 3 at the end of this month. We just went to his new preschool to write up an IEP. He too is behind in speech, and will be recieving a preschool program and speech therapy. I had hoped that he would be able to have an exam scheduled before school, but we'll just have to wait our turn. Keep posting, I would love to know the progress that your little one has made, and about her exam.
Kendra

[aiden and kyra's mom]

dmmetler, thank you for that info. I know Kyra does not like to do things 'on demand' so i think that is the whole problem we have had with early intervention and all of her assessments. She can do most of what they want her to do, but she won't do it when they ask. And, they can't take my word for it.

Kendra, i hope you get an appointment soon. There is no guarantee I will have one before she turns 3, but the school is hoping. I am just nervous. I don't feel there is anything wrong with Ky, except for some speech delays. But they are thinking a whole bunch of delays and it makes me nervous. I am afraid that if they find something 'wrong' with her, then I will end up treating her like there is something wrong with her. As it is, I still think of her as a baby because of the lack of communication (verbal). LOL

I will keep you up to date, and thank you both for your responses.