We are going through the CSE process with our school district to get Kenny III tested and possibly seme services. I am not thinking that they will qualify him for services though, because we are homeschoolers. The school psychologist has been helpful and is pleasant to deal with, as are the office staff members at Pupil Personnel Services. However, I requested the evaluation in early September, before school even started, and we have not even had test number one yet. I am pretty sure if he were in school this process would not be taking so long. My son;s challenges are only additional effort for me, not any classroom teachers, so we are low on the list of priorities. I am consoling myself and keeping my frustration in check by constantly reminding myself that there are children with far greater needs than K3 so we can just wait our turn.
I chose to also have K3 evaluated by a private neuropsychologist. We are blessed with health insurance, and the doctor we chose took care of all the insurance issues himself. This was a gift in and of itself, as it left me free to navigate the other mazes of this process. His office is in Smithtown, which was no fun to get to, but he was soft spoken, generous with his time and non nonsense without being abrasive. All in all I would recommend him, as there are so few from which to choose and the only other neuropsych I know of does not come recommended. In fact, I tried to use the Stony Brook neuropsych and quickly learned that would not be the path for us.
Anyway, Friday night dh and I went to Dr. Sandberg's office to get his verbal synopsis of K3's test results. Some were quite surprising, but I am relieved to know where we stand. I am also very relieved that the first words out of Dr. Sandberg's mouth were not "He needs to go to school". It was pretty clear that was what he wanted to say, but he was kind and respected our choice. It appears Kenny has some sort of visual spatial perception issue. It is not severe and until I see the report for myself I don't completely understand what that means. He also is below level academically but since the tests are given in written format that is not surprising. The verbal tests and spoken memory tests were well above the mean, again no surprise.
What was surprising to me was that he does not appear to have any fine motor delays. He cannot properly write letters, but this is not due to any muscle weakness or fine motor difficulty. I was also amazed to learn my son cannot recite the alphabet! Actually, he can but he goes right from "s" to "y-z". However, once I realized he was having trouble I stopped trying to teach him the names of letters and focused more on making sure he knows what sound a particular symbol makes. Which he can do, so that was not a big deal to me although the doctor was pretty stunned that a 7 year old can't recite the alphabet! Whatever.
I look forward to seeing how the school's testing lines up with the neuropsych tests. Ia m thankful that Kenny III does not realize that he has challenges or is behind his peers in certain areas. I an thankful that our insurance will cover the testing and the OT, that dh is participating in this process and that we have the freedom to homeschool him and address these issues in all aspects of his life. I am also very blessed to have a great network of friends who have been or are going through this same process. It is wonderful to be part of a true community.
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