What to do?

This week has been full of appointments and phone calls. I took Samuel to the developmental pediatrician on Wednesday. It was downtown, right next to Grady Hospital. We met with Dr. Rubin. He was phenomenal. Some people are born to do their job and he is one of them. You could tell he loves kids and Samuel responded so well to him. He works out of an autism clinic and I think he deals with mostly autistic kids. I could tell that Samuel was a breath of fresh air for them. Samuel is very compliant when all the attention is on him and didn't complain at all during any of the exams. Most of the kids they see have extreme sensory issues so checking their ears, eyes and even weight is a chore.

We spent around three hours there. I had brought quite a bit of information from the school to share with them. They read everything, asked me a ton of questions and spent quite a bit of time with Samuel. So, what did Dr Rubin come up with? Well, he's a complex kid and he's wasn't comfortable in giving him a label until we do further testing. He said it could be ADHD but he also could have a learning issue that is causing these attention issues. Samuel struggles with alot of motor skills. He can't hop, skip and ride his bike very well at all. Dr Rubin said that he uses his right side much more than his left. If you look at his left shoe it is worn alot less than his right. So, he does qualify to get some occupational therapy help. Thankfully, this is covered under our insurance.

I was glad that we didn't get a label. That's not what I'm after. Samuel definitely has some real attention issues that will become more of an issue as academics get more difficult. But I want the pieces of this puzzle to fit and right now they are not.

His recommendation was to have full psychological testing done. That way we can see the way Samuel learns and where is strengths and weaknesses are. The bad news is a good private psychologist is $2500. His school can do it but I'm not sure how thorough they will be. Samuel is functioning ok in school. But he has a great teacher who has done a ton of accommodations for him. He's in kindergarten. This is a walk in the park compared what is coming.

If money was not an issue, I would have him tested right away. One of the psychologists I talked to this week would be awesome. He would spend at least 40 hours on Samuel between going to the school for observations, talking to his teachers, and multiple sessions with Samuel testing him. He then would come back to the school with his findings.

So, that is where we are. And I'm not sure what to do. There are some psychologists on our health plan but we all know that many of them are awful. We could wait and see what happens in the next year and hope for the best. These choices as a parent are the toughest.