Chat with the Evaluator

We had the chat with the educational psychologist today.

She re-confirmed his diagnosis of ADHD, mildly inattentive, yet still "disabling" enough in 1Kid's life.

1Kid is OK cognitively, IQ-wise, etc, no learning disabilities, but hinted at some language processing issues due to something he may have missed very early in life, perhaps even in infancy, somewhere in the foundation of language learning, and recommended a meeting with a speech pathologist.

The hardwiring of 1Kid's brain made him unable to put forth the "mechanics" of taking care of his "stuff," despite his drive and motivation to do so. I liked the way she worded that. She recommended a counselor (which he already does see) as a proactive measure. She emphasized that from his results that she is concerned of him being an "at risk" youth, i.e., thrill-seeking, dangerous/impulsive behavior, etc. We need to do what we can proactively to keep his self-esteem and confidence up, and get him interested and successful in school again.

Her further recommendations to that end were:

To cut the ties of being coach/tutor and go back to being mom, and for 1Kid to be accountable to a tutor or other individual a couple of times a week for him to keep up on his "stuff, " as he is still unable to do that for himself yet. She would NOT recommend letting him to go it on his own.

504 recommendations for high school.

A set of classes (On-Track) he can take over the summer for study skills/organizational/test-taking skills, etc., a class for us parents to go to learn parenting strategies of an ADHD adolescent, and some workshops (orho) for 1Kid, like a motivational/assertiveness sort of class.

To meet with a child psychiatrist to revisit the med issue, which I would be more than happy to look into again, as 1Kid is showing the side-effects of NOT being medicated.