Has it been harder for your homeschooled kids to get diagnosed?

[Cadam]

I am filling out forms (ADHD assessment, but it could be ASD or NVLD as well) for the Developmental Pediatrician. Of course there are forms for a teacher because they want to know if she exhibits the same behaviors in a school setting. She is pretty well behaved in gymnastics and Sunday school because it is interesting and new and there is a lot of movement. So while she still has the behaviors they are not as obvious and she never gets frustrated enough to throw a tantrum there.

In a school setting I think she would be great at first but eventually she would lose it. The diagnostic criteria says she has to have issues in more than one setting. :confused: She has issues in the grocery store, at grandma's house, our friend's house and a little bit at the gym and SS but she has well experienced teachers and there is a lot of action to keep her engaged.

I think I have enough to talk to the DP but it just seems like she is at a disadvantage in getting a dx because I have chosen to hs and compensate for her problems. Dh and I were talking last night and realized that we have created a little world here for her and the most "boring" thing she has to do is chores. We battle over chores daily. Thank God she likes learning!

[Alice]

The reason the criteria look for symptoms in more than one setting is that it would be a huge red flag if a kid had one set of behaviors at school and another at home. When I look at the assessment forms I expect kids with ADHD or ASD to not show symptoms in places like gym or art class. A lot of times that is the case. But for me if a parent has forms that show many many symptoms but a school sees none....it's not necessarily ADD (not that it couldn't be as parents usually know their kids best, but it would make me think twice about making a diagnosis). More often the setting I see is where a teacher has referred a kid for concerns but the parent forms don't show the same concerns. In that setting, I would NOT diagnose a kid but would usually try and figure out with the parent and child what's going on at school. A lot of times it's just a teacher that is a bad fit for that particular child, or a child who is bored, or something else going on.

For your situation, I don't think you'll be at a "disadvantage". I would just tell them what your concerns. The more specific examples you can give the better...frankly, I find the history and story from the patient and parents much more helpful than the forms. They are purely a screening tool and not meant to be the only way to make the diagnosis.

[SheilaZ]

Fill out the forms to reflect her behavior is accomidations were not made for her.
At SS she has teachers that are used to her, how would she behave if they didn't read her reactions and change behavior.
At home, she doesn't get frustrated, but what would she do if she had to stay in her seat and complete work that she didn't think she could do.

That was what I did for my developmental ped. She knew that we had experience in redirecting our sons' behavior and that we made a lot accomidations to help the boys be successful. But she wanted to know what they would be like in a typical classroom.

Once diagnosis was done, we talked about actual behavior and what problems that they were still having even with accomidations.
Then she could suggest treatment. (example...at home my 6 year old is hyper and impulsive but it doesn't bother me. However, it bothers his co-op teachers...so he had a low dose med for that class day.)

Good luck with all this. Sometimes the paperwork is worse than dealing with our kids.:tongue_smilie:

[Laurie4b]

Our neuropsych used her own observations during testing as one of the critieria. For my ds, a lot of it is subtle, and he can definitely hold his own in a fairly short 1-2 hour outside class. For one thing, they don't require much writing, math, etc.! However, on the testing, there were several times when she observed impulsivity (said an answer right away, then corrected self), saw fidgeting, etc. That's pretty much what I see at home. I think because of all the treatment for sensory integration, ds's symptoms are more subtle than they would have been otherwise.

Another possible idea is for you to fill out one of the assessments as the teacher and dh do the parent one. The Sunday school teacher's might not meet clinical criteria, but if hers shows a bump in the same places, it would be verification.

[EKS]

I think the combination of giftedness, LDs (dyslexia, APD, vision problems, SPD, ADHD-type behavior, and Asperger's-type behavior), and homeschooling did make it difficult for evaluators to get a clear picture of my son. The gifted thing and homeschooling helped to "cancel out" the LD thing (on the academic side) and homeschooling helped to cancel out a lot of the behavioral issues that would be seen in a school. When he started being 1, 2, and 3 years advanced academically in most subjects after a few years of homeschooling things just got harder to explain.

I completely understand your concern. I always wrote something to accompany any forms the professionals had me fill out. I always said something like "If he were in school, this his how he would behave or achieve or whatever."

[mom2g2b]

My son was diagnosed with Developmental Coordination Disorder even though he was homeschooled. I had to answer questionaires. In addition, his OT and Family Doctor filled out forms.

Vickie

[nitascool]

When I took my 6yo in to see his dr. she told me that he should have been in school... if he was then the teacher would have caught it by mid-year of Kindergarten. I tried to explain to her that this was mid-year Kindergarten and that we'd been trying to get him help for a while now (we'd asked for an eval. several times).

Finally, she sent us to a Autism Spectrum Specialist... after I'd specifically asked for a OT to eval. for SPD. The AS Specialist told us that ds had ADHD after an hour eval. and said that his rubbing his face raw was a coping mechanism. She told us to get him on "a strong dose of ADHD medication". She also said that the behavior would go away, at least be greatly reduced, if we sent him to public school. The child can't even handle SS without getting into trouble with the teachers and he's going to handle PS. I doubt it.

I told the Specialist that we wanted an OT eval. she agreed to send a letter back to our Primary Dr. but that there was no way he had SPD. It was a big circus. Ugg.

Now ds has been in OT since February. He had severe issues in all areas except one. Still the only reason our Ins. agreed to the treatment was because of his writing issues. Fast forward to his last appointment. he is a different boy. Still some hyper behaviors at times and some inattentiveness, but not near what he was. And this without any mind altering drugs.

I am so glad I persisted even when dh was saying that ADHD fit his behavior.

So to your question... in one way yes... but as I've listened to the stories of those with children in school, sometimes that can be even more difficult if the teacher isn't cooperative or doesn't agree with the parent's view of the child. This happens a lot more then you'd think... especially with gifted children, because they can compensate so well. Also the teaches are discouraged from giving too many children a chance to be evaluated... the system doesn't want to deal with tons of IEP's.