Micki: It really depends on what you are after. We had a neuropsyche
evaluate my little guy last november. She was very expensive and all out of
pocket. It took 1 and 1/2 days (2 hr sessions am/pm)
I needed a full icture of my little guy. I needed to know his areas of
strengths and I also needed to know the extent of all his deficits.
My report was 42 pages long and I use it as a road map and I refer to it
often. I needed someone other than my ABA provider/Speech pathologist/
School District to take a look at him and give me their opinion.
I am getting another one done this December because I need to know
personally how much progress he has made in one year. For me it is the
only independent gage that I have of his progress.
In regards to Adrian'smom: I think if you have services in place and your son is making such great gains you should stick with what you have. I have heard that ABA can be beneficial to all children, not just children on the spectrum.
Unless there is something else, like financial that is really concerning you, it definitely won't hurt to let him continue with the program. If you get him reevaluated and they decide to remove the PDD label, you might lose services.
Micki: I agree with the above posters...just make sure if you are going to pay out of pocket for this reevaluation that it is someone who is going to be able to give you lots of insight! With us, Mason has seen many different doctors...we got the best information from his neuropsych...she had a few pages of recommendations for home and school. Good luck
Hi everyone! My son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS this past July and we are thinking of having him reevaluated as well. He attends an Early Intervention school (focus on ABA) Mon-Fri from 9-11:30am and then receives ABA at home Mon,Wed,Fri from 12:30-2:30 and on Tues/Thurs receives Speech from 1-3pm. On Saturdays he gets OT from 12-1:30.
He has made great strides since then. The OT swears there is no way he has pdd-nos. Adrian (my son) makes great eye contact and is affectionate (sometimes he does get very hyper and hits). He has some sensory issues (picky eater, rocking himself to sleep) and his speech is delayed. He has around 10-15 words in his vocabulary. It's all so confusing. The initial evaluation was for 30min only and my husband was there (I was at work) and he said the psychologist said he didnt need to see more and that Adrian had pdd-nos. Should I reevaluate him? His lead teacher says he is flying through the ABA program designed under his IFSP more than any kids she has worked with.
I think it's important to understand exactly what you want to get out of an additional evaluation and find an evaluator that can meet your needs.
My son was given a full evaluation by the school in Feb. We didn't disagree with the evaluation. However, we pursued a private evaluation with a neuropscyh this summer. I had 3 stated objectives for the private evaluation.
1. I wanted my son to have a non-verbal IQ test. The test given at school was the Weschler and I was concerned that because of his language delays that it wasn't an accurate representation of his intelligence.
2. I wanted an official medical dx. I knew he was PDD-NOS, and we get all the services we need at the moment, but I wanted to have the dx in writing in case I ever needed it.
3. School is only concerned with how a childs disability interferes with their ability to be educated, and all interventions and therapies proposed by the school are laser focused on increasing his educabilty. However, as a parent, my goals are more broad and realated to having my son be successful in life in general, not just school. I asked the neuropsych to look at the proposed interventions that the school is doing and provide addititional recommendations. I also asked her to make recommendations as to how we can best supplement what the school is providing with private therapies and what we should focus on with those therapies. In addition, I asked for specific recommendations of things we could be doing at home.
This was a very positive experience for us. I got a 12 page report back from the neuropsych that gave me exactly what I asked for. It's not cheap to do a private evaluation and to get the most out of the experience I think it's very important to clearly state your objectives up front and assure that the person you're working with understands your objectives and is committed to giving you what you are asking for.
I went to a pediatric psychologist with expertise in autism. It was covered by our insurance and very much worth it if we had to pay for it in full. She did testing and gave us a detailed report with reccomendations for education, home, behavior, etc. It was the most helpful thing we received when begining this process. She sees my son once a year and I go in with all reports and programming a couple of times a year to get feedback.
I agree with Kristy. Figure out what you want out of it, write it down and then see if it is worth it to you. Make sure the evaluator is on the same page as you in what you are looking for.
micki from what I can tell your son is a lot like T.
I too would like more clinical info and recommendations, but I have deferred getting a clinical evaluation for now.
1) our insurance does not cover an evaluation! I would pay 00 out of pocket.
2) I am satisfied that T is progressing in school and that her IEP is adequate for her needs. If the time comes that I am NOT satisfied with her social or academic progress, I will reconsider the evaluation.
HTH!
My ds got his diagnosis of pdd-nos by a psychologist about 9 month ago.