[QUOTE=edbson]He is a liottle young to be diagnosed with ADHD, but it happens sometimes . I would definetely contact a Neuorpsychologist for testing/evaluation, not a Psychiatrist. [/QUOTE]
Just curious why you said NOT a psychiatrist. My son is 5 and just got diagnosed. We go to a Behavioral Health and Autism Clinic at a very well known children's hospital. A psychiatrist diagnosed my son ADHD, and he is seen monthly by him and occasionally the LCSW (for behavior play therpay).
Because a Neuropsych will actually do extensive testing, where a Psychiatrist will usually just speak to the parents, and the child and maybe have a teacher fill out a Connors.
My DD was diagnosed by a "psychiatric team" at TX Childrens Hospital, the Psychiatrist told us the final diagnosis, but the neuropsych did the actual testing, and ordered the bloodwork, EKG's, and EEG's.
Actually the psychiatrist will be giving him a 3-4 hour evaluation.A psychiatric evaluation is usually several visits, totalling 6-10 hours, extensive testing, Bloodwork, EKG's, EEG's etc. They do bloodowrk to rule out other causes, and IQ testing etc. At least that has been my experience, and we have had 7 evaluations.I am one of those parents who is not satisifed until I have a 2nd, 4th, 7th opinion.Gina, the psychiatrist would not do the "academic" testing or learning style. Like I stated in my other post, this is probably less important until after age 6. There are just fewer available tests for for 5 year olds. I am sure a 3-4 psych evaluation is a fine place to start.
IMO do the school evaluation also. They've opened the door by coming to you, take advantage of that, get what services you can. I am telling you, a good speech language therapist can do wonders with interactive play and work on conversational skills and social development. You can also get a solid behavior plan in place.
If you can afford it, a team evaluation is definitely the way to go. We are just going through this process, and I've been really impressed. These are usually possible at large hospitals. There's a neuropsych and psychiatrist on the team and then various other professionals. Maybe do the psych eval that's already set up and the school evals first and if you aren't satisfied, you can find a neuropsych or a team to evaluate him later.Hi everyone,
Thanks for all of the info and suggestions. He is in private school and I honestly don't know if they have a counselor on site. After the psychiatric eval we will talk to the school about their eval process and talk to our Dr. about further evals depending on the results.
I have a 5.5 year old son. A little background; he is very bright- was reading, spelling, writing very early, very artistic, etc. He is quite shy and doesn't speak up in class or answer the teachers. He is very good in school, doesn't fuss, does all of his homework in class and at home and enjoys it. He can focus on art or writing or reading for hours at a time. So why am I here?
The teachers were mainly concerned about him getting distracted when he sits down to start a new projects and spacing out. The have to guide him a lot and repeat themselves. He says 'I don't know' a lot when he obviously does.
I worry because he speaks in these 'tangential' conversations where he will go off on a story that doesn't make sense while we are talking or when we aren't.
He also can obsess about a book or a character and all he wants to do is read that book or draw pictures from that book every day for a month or so. Sometimes he wants us to repeat steps that we did to complete something at home and has a tantrum if we don't do it exactly as he wants.
So we are getting a psychioatric evaluation soon.
Any thoughts??
He is a liottle young to be diagnosed with ADHD, but it happens sometimes . I would definetely contact a Neuorpsychologist for testing/evaluation, not a Psychiatrist. Thank you for your reply. The primary physician gave me the referral after I explained our concerns. Why do you say neuropsychologist?I agree, neuropsych is the way to go. It is generally best to evaluate AFTER age 6 though. In the meantime you can request school do an evaluation. Ask for a speech language, behavioral evaluation. He sounds a lot like my younger daughter at age 4. She gets some services though school, but does seem to be outgrowing most of this stuff. I think it was a bit of a language delay. A neuropsychologist will do a full evlaution and test for all learning disabilities. If you start with the school's speech language and psych testing, you get a starting point and save the private eval until he's older. You would do this by sending a letter to the school's special ed coordinator, requesting an evaluation of your concerns with your sons language, bahviors (the repetitive speech, inattention....etc. CC the teacher, principal and special ed director for the town. They have 60 school days to evaluate. Mention the teachers concerns with inattention and "spacing out".