A Kid Like Mine: A River Runs Through It

Okay, as promised, here are the assessment results: He has been diagnosed as follows:

Abnormal Auditory Processing Disorder

Aphasia

Fine Motor Skills (severe impairment)

Sensory-perceptual skills (mild to moderate impairment)

Verbal Memory (borderline)

Visual-Spatial Skills (mild impairment)

Dyslexia (moderate impairment)

Expressive language (low average)

Attention (significantly deviant)

Impulsivity (significantly deviant)

Nonverbal Processing Speed (mild to moderate impairment)

Processing Speed (low average)

Arithmetic (low average)

Spelling (low average)

Learning Disability in Written Expression

Learning Disability in Reading

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Combined Type

Social Anxiety

So what does this all mean? I’m not quite sure but I’m in the process of finding out.

The day that George and I went to see Dr. Harrington to get these results, I became very emotional. My bubby has been dealing with all this his whole life and he’s done it with such a good attitude! Those summers spent wrestling with him so he’d read a book. The 3 to 4 hour homework sessions. The constant reminder for him to turn in his homework – it was all so clear now.

As I began to read up on ADHD, I found many of the symptoms described him – forgetting to turn in homework; starting but not completing assignments; misplacing things; forgetting things; not being able to complete a checklist of tasks; the constant fidgeting while doing homework. I knew something was going on because Jack is such a good kid, wanting to please. I knew he wasn’t just not following through out of laziness or rebellion. But I didn’t quite get it until I got these results.

The one thing this list of deficits revealed to us was that Jack is an amazing kid – and any kid like him. He was able to get relatively good grades all these years, with a good attitude and he was dealing with all this. It confirmed that he did have the thing that we have been trying to instill in him – a good work ethic. I would say his is phenomenal!

After discussing the results with the doctor, I had asked her if I should check into vision therapy for Jack as I have heard amazing things about that (Dr. Sprehe is one of the few doctors in the area who do vision therapy – see link at side). She asked me to hold off until she performed one more assessment.

This was an assessment where they used color overlays. I was able to witness this assessment and it was mind-blowing. As Jack is there looking at a white piece of paper with black print on it, she began to ask him different questions – questions that no one had ever thought of asking him. She asked him if anything moved on the page, if he saw any colors, if there were any other things he saw. As he began describing pulsing; colors; and rivers running through the page, I was floored. He never knew he was seeing things differently than anyone else and he never would have known had she not asked the right questions.

The next amazing thing was when she brought out some color overlays. She had him read with the overlays and you could see the improvement immediately! She asked him the same questions again and he responded positively each time “It’s good! It’s really good!” he’d say.

This experience made me realize that things are not always as they appear. My son experiences things differently than I do. So when he knows how to do something last week, but doesn’t seem to understand it this week – he’s not being contrary – he’s being real. When he forgets to turn in his homework after doing it a second time, he really did forget. When he can’t seem to line his numbers up when he’s multiplying, he is trying to be neat. This kid is constantly trying. I get teared up just thinking about the effort he must put in to try and get things right each and every day.

By the way, the assessment she did with the overlay, helped determine that Jack has something called Irlen Syndrome – It’s not a vision problem. Jack has had an extensive vision assessment and all is good. Rather, it’s a matter of how the brain processes visual information.

A couple of weekends ago, we took a trip to Toledo, OH so Jack could get a pair of glasses that he can use while he reads. The overlays have been known to improve reading comprehension, attention and many other issues dramatically, so we're hoping the same will be true for Jack.

Fingers crossed – believing that God is directing our path and that this is just one of things that is going to help my bubby.