Neuropsychological Eval?

caseyleigh77

Hi ladies,

 I have posted here once before about my 6 year old son. He has been dx'd with Aspergers, OCD, Anxiety, ADHD and hypotonia. He is on meds, participating in PCIT, gets OT and APE at school. We saw his psychiatrist this afternoon and she wants him to get a neuropsychological eval to rule out ASD (She was nto convinced he had Aspergers when we told her the Neurologist dx'd him with that) and to get more clarification on his OCD and Anxiety.

So my question to you all is....what is and what should I expect from one of these eval's?

 Thank you all in advance for your help!

caseyleigh77

Auntie - I am sorry if this sounds like a jumbled mess.....but that is my life sometimes. Thank you for taking the time to respond :-)

 We originally took DS to his pedi (fall 2010) cause I was questioning some behavioral issues. He said that typically ADHD testing is done when the child is in school so they can get proper teacher evals. OK fine...so I waited...about 4 months when DS's behavior was getting progressively worse. I took him back in and cried my eyes out to the pedi to please help me (early 2011. I was afraid that if we didnt do something now that it would be a bigger problem in kinder. He agreed and stated that it would be a long process. That there was no quick test etc. So he ordered a bunch of labs, an EEG and sent me with papers to fill out. The EEG was normal and the labs were ok I assume. He reffered us to a neurologist. We met with him for a consult and he said he could help us but that we must acknowledge that he has mild Aspergers as well as ADHD, severe OCD and Severe Anxiety. We explained out problems that we were having...bad behavior, poor sleep (child would not fall asleep until 11pm or later most nights) and chewing. He started with him fingernails then when those were gone he went for the toenails..when those were gone he started chewing the skin off his toes, pads or toes, heels and then on to his hands.

Neurologist rx'd clonidine for the sleep....that worked for about 3 months when I noticed that while he was being forced to sleep....he was not getting "rest". he looked horrible in the mornings. He also rx'd Prozac....I hesitated giving it to him for about 2 weeks until we were in Walmart one day and the meltdown happened....then I filled the rx...right then and there!  He took the Prozac for about a week with no change...until day 9 he had chewed his hand so bad that he made it bleed (not the first time) and stated.."oh my God..I cant believe I did this...I did this to myself...I wanna kill myself" ....So I called the Neuro the next morning and he didnt call me back til 8pm...(that pissed me off) said to stop the Prozac and come in for a follow up. I had to cancel my follow up due to an illness..and never rescheduled..and to this day..a year later..they have NEVER called me looking for my son. Needless to say..we are not going back there.

Our pedi also sent him to an OT for eval. She determined that he has hypotonia and would need OT. The pedi's office dropped the ball and never could get it auth'd

I called the school district and started the eval process there. He was eval'd for speech (fine), IQ (great), PE (requires APE 2x/week) and will have an assistant if necessary in the classroom. When I told them of my OT eval..they agreed to give him another one when the new school year started as we were at the end of that one (last May) I agreed. When the new school year started he started recieving services (APE, Handwriting without tears, an instructional aide in the class and a yoga ball to sit at his desk if needed.) They also give him gum in school to help deture him from chewing his hands. Thus far I am very pleased at how the school has dealt with him.

But his behavior at home is still not good. I also sought therapy services from an outside agency. They sent a behavioral therapist to our home a few times and did evals at their office. Said he would benefit from PCIT. So we are halfway through that.

Let me back up a bit...at the beginning of the school year I also brought him back to the pedi cause I was ready to explore different meds..he tried him on Vyvanse, Resperidal, and one other that I am forgetting. We decided that the Vyvanse was working for him somewhat. After lurking on this board for some time I made the decision that I should contact a specialist to better manage him meds (he did get some yucky side effects). I managed to get him in to UC Davis's psychiatry dept for an eval. That is where we learned that he is being OD'd on the Vyvanse for his size...they lowered his dose and added Intuniv to help extend the better behavior. The psych is the one asking for the neuropsych eval to rule out ASD. She and her supervisor were not totally convinced that he has Aspergers when I told them. She also wants new labs drawn.

Since lowering the dose of Vyvanse..his behavior is not as good..but still way better than without it. The chewing is still bad. He has a hard time paying attention when we speak to him. Literally cant tell me what I just said to him right in his face. He is very emotional at times. Not nice to little brother or the dogs...or us for that matter. On the flip side..he is very social, getting perfect grades has lots of friends and is extremely bright. (talks like his is 6 going on 16 sometimes)

 

caseyleigh77

Sorry Bump Burp

caseyleigh77

And Again

caseyleigh77

-auntie-:

Busy day here. My son's cat is not doing well and I spent the day at the vet. Tomorrow we're off to the neurologist. For the cat. And I havee a band parent meeting tonight. Ugh.

I'll try to answer you tomorrow.

 

Thank you! Hope your son's cat is doing a bit better!