Notes on Nixon

Alot of you were wondering about the results of Nixon's Neuropsych testing last week. We had some good news and some bad news:

The Good:
- With all of the therapy that he has been getting in special ed, he tested much better on his social awareness and sensitivities. The Neuropsychologist believes that we are out of the woods on the autism diagnosis (whew...big whew).
- Although his "normal" IQ testing was below normal, they decided to test him with a different test. The test they used was for children who are non-verbal, and the whole test is given without verbal instructions or the need for verbal responces to the test. Nixon scored above average IQ based on the non-verbal testing.

The Bad
- The testing showed that Nixon is functioning at an age of 2 years, 4 months. This puts him delayed by 1.5 years.
- Although we had thought that he was doing so much better verbally, but the doc told us that as he is approaching four the curve is getting steeper. Although he know talks a little bit, his vocab and verbal abilities are still around an 18 month to two year old. That was a big disappointment for me since I had felt that we had made alot of progress.
- Fine motor skills are a major concern. He is unable to correctly hold a crayon, and is unable to make a line. Very big concern.
- The potential diagnosis we are now looking at is combined ADD and ADHD with Developmental Delay and a Speech Delay. I'm still wrestling with if this really is any better than the mild autism diagnosis that they had warned us about a year ago. Even though autism is so serious, mildly autistic sounds so much better to me than all the other ones combined. Maybe its just because it is more words, and maybe its because we are somewhat opposed to medication and that seems to be the route for the ADD/ADHD disorder. Our opinion may change as he gets into his school years, but we have decided not to medicate at this time.

The Ugly: We are waiting on the tests that were sent to special ed and his learning center. Once those are in the Doc will write his report. Once we get the report we need to call another IEP with the school district to change his IEP goals. Doc has strongly suggested outside Speech therapy and Occupational therapy on top of what he is getting through special ed, so we need to start looking for providers. Doc also strongly recommended getting a Child Behavioral Psychologist on board. Once we get all the players we need to schedule a meeting with the school, the psychologist, and the Neuropsychologist to develop a combined school/home plan. This sounds very overwhelming, so I am glad to have the time to wait for the report from neuropsych before I have to get started.
Well...thats the news. If anyone knows a really great speech therapist in the Plymouth Canton area who takes U of M insurance - let me know!!!