Service Choices

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Answer:

1. Testing through the school system -- This is an "okay" option, but I found our school system's testing severely lacking in thoroughness and quality. The school system did do a few tests and pronounced their results in a very short report.. less than two pages, with nothing significant as far as guiding information. We had private testing done by two different neuropsychologists (a year and a half apart) -- one gave a decent diagnosis and some brief info on how our child learned and a few teaching suggestions. The second gave a 39 page report with detailed instructions on what our child needed, how he learns, ways he'd learn best, what kinds of deficits he has and how these affect his learning.. It was like receiving a book on "How to teach YOUR Child". To me.. this is THE option I'd choose (personal opinion) even though our insurance didn't cover it and it was expensive (and we are NOT rich--painful to pay for, but worth every single penny ;-)

2. Pediatrician -- I found that our pediatrician knew relatively little about learning disabilities or developmental disabilities. While she could give us referrals, but didn't have any input on ways to deal with LD issues.

3. Neurodevelopment Training -- the program which takes the child through the basic development stages, rolling, creeping, crawling, etc. in daily exercises for the benefit of brain development.

Our neuropsychologist did say that cross-body patterning (using both> hemispheres of the brain to coordinate moves on alternating sides of the body) is shown to improve neurological functioning. It was recommended that we enroll our child in Karate, Tennis, Swimming, or Gymnastics and keep him enrolled in one or more of these -- and it HAS helped!! It is a way to fulfill this need without subjecting an older child to the creeping/crawling programs that can be either boring or little-kiddish. It does take a LONG, LONG time to see significant improvement though--It was about 5 years (and we have enrolled in each of the above sports at one time or another) before we saw significant changes kick in. Now, most everyone is SHOCKED at the improvement!! :-D

So, having been around the block a few times--If I were starting on
the journey for the first time TODAY-- I would:

1) Get thorough neuropsychological from a highly recommended neuropsychologist right off the bat (wouldn't mess with trying to get testing done 'cheaply' --as the results just weren't thorough enough to be viable).

2) I'd enroll my child in SWIMMING from the beginning as it is a CONSTANT cross-body patterning exercise-- The others (we did them all first) are some alternating, but not constant--it wasn't until I forced swimming that we saw improvements at a steady pace. Now my child LOVES swimming although he was terrified of it in the beginning.

That's my two cents for what it's worth!
BEST WISHES!
Sandy

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