Visit to the Neuropsychologist

February 22nd - Contrarian spent the morning with the specialist (neuropsychologist) doing tests.

The doc said that it was a slow start but picked up. Contrarian said that the doc didn't speak to him that much- he just had to do tests on a computer - like push the spacebar when he didn't see a letter that was X.

I'm sure that they did a lot more during the 2 hours but I will find out later when they call me in.

Contrarian is no longer so friendly with two of his friends. Once the 'bleyblade' phase was over the boys didn't seem so eager on each other's company.

He is spending more time with his original friend with the playstation. They have a very dynamic relationship because they are similar in some ways. It turns out this little boy's parents were called in by PPT recently. His parent's have told me so I know what is going on but I don't want to talk about another child on this blog.

Contrarian had a little outburst at school last week but other than that he is very happy at school. The incident happened when a new teacher (stranger) tried to take his ice hockey stick away from him - that would be the ice hockey stick that he sleeps with in bed (he was demonstrating something in the hallway).

She hadn't yet been informed that contrarian is Aspergers so she got annoyed with him when he didn't 'respond' to her. Contrarian was devastated and had a shutdown. Fortunately his assistant heard the commotion and came running. It was resolved once his own teacher and assistant took care of the situation.

We have worked on defining his relationship with the ice hockey stick. He is now able to leave it in the hallway at home so that he doesn't knock things over inside the house.

Uro og trass

Yesterday I had a meeting with BUP. They explained how they had scored my boy during the last observation.

In communication he got 14 points where the cut off point was 10. That means that he is 4 points into the Asperger area. Socially he got 12 points where the cut off was 6. That means 6 points into Aspergers area. Behaviour he got 10 where I seam to remember the cut off was 3 points.

The psychologists feel that he was so uncooperative during the observation session that they can't close with a diagnosis yet. Here I was marveling at how I had never seen him so cooperative with a stranger before!

They can't assess if he is restless and defiant because he can't do the task or if it is because he doesn't want to.

This means that another psychiatrist will be called inn to assess the case. There might be more observations/sessions or it might be decided that there's enough to make a final diagnosis.

The psychologists recommend medication in order to find out if the defiant behaviour is ADHD. If contrarian's defiant behaviour does not change on medication then it will indicate that the behaviour is because of the Aspergers. However, the psychiatrist will make this decision.

I'm not too enthusiastic about using medication - there's something unnatural about drugs in a child's body. However, if it can improve his social abilities at school then maybe it is worth some consideration. Another unknown territory for me.

Observation - BUP

Just realized that I forgot to write about the last observation my boy did!

Observation 7th January 2011 - BUP Asker.

I was allowed to watch through a mirror/window - like the ones in NCIS when they play 'bad cop - good cop'. It was a taped session.

We had explained to contrarian that he was going to 'play' with the psychiatrist. He wasn't happy about it, he couldn't quite understand what the fuss was about. I told him that it was because of the WISC test results. That the doctors wanted to know how he could be so clever when his concentration was age appropriate. He accepted my explanation although reluctantly.

He was very offish to the psychiatrist - very distrusting. She tried to engage him in 'role-play' but he told her that he found it childish so he didn't want to play with her.

She would chose a bag for each task. In the bag there would be various toys - there would always be at least one item that didn't fit in with the rest of the toys. He liked the gadgets, at one point he became completely fascinated with a sort of 'pin pad' thing. The one where you can put your hand or face and push the 'pins' to the other side so that it makes an imprint of your hand or face. He loved the detail. He didn't like the figures at all - called them childish.

The questions went something like :"Is mum/dad/friend/sister happy?What does mum do when she happy/angry/sad?How do you know that mum is happy/angry/sad? What does mum like to do?" etc .

I realized that my son

a) Doesn't see facial expressions

b)Doesn't read body language

c)Doesn't know what anybody in his family or social group likes doing or doesn't like doing (except for beyblades - apparently all his friends are only interested in beyblades just like him).

d)He knows when his little sister is angry/upset because she is vocal - she cries or screams. We have to help her then because she is a baby.

e)He does know and remember everything I tell him verbally-even if he doesn't agree with it.

f)My son doesn't know that I smile when I am happy or that I laugh a lot but he can 'feel' it. He can't explain that I go quiet when I am upset or that I go for a walk when I am sad but he can 'feel' it. And the truth is that he does feel it. I know because he will ask me "mummy what is wrong?".

There was a particular task where she took out a book. She then asked contrarian to tell her the story. The book was about the life cycle of frogs.

Contrarian became very enthused - basically grabbed the book from her hands wile she was still talking - nodding his head and pushing her hands away. I was taken aback by his in depth knowledge and understanding of the detailed process. His intelligence shinned through on all accounts. So did his lack of ability to 'read' other people.

One of the psychologist phoned me a few days later to ask if BUP could use the video in their training sessions. I said 'yes'.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with BUP to hear what the psychiatrist made of the observation and what conclusions she has come to.

EEG

Contrarian went for an EEG this morning. He was a little disturbed by the funny gel stuff they put in his hair and forehead but generally he was very patient.

I noticed that he seamed to get very tired when doing the 'fast' breathing exercises.

When it was finished we were given a piece of paper to give to the admin office. I noticed that it read : 'diagnosis' - Z033/G409.

They said that we would get the results in a weeks time.

Everything is great at the moment, my boy is so happy with life. Even doing his homework without protestations!

Meeting with the school, PPT and BUP

On the 1st December we had a meeting at the school - BUP, PPT, teacher and school inspector. It was interesting and I must say that I feel cofident that all parties involved are doing their best for my little contrarian.

The diagnoses has not been given yet as we still have a few more weeks of observation/questioning. However, BUP felt confident enough to inform the school that we are dealing with both ADHD and Aspergers.

It's just not decided which one affects his behaviour most and where on the Autism spectrum he is.

I was considering renaming my blog 'twice exceptional' but I think I'll have to go with 'three times exceptional'.

Highly gifted, ADHD and Aspergers. That does allow for a dynamic mixture.

The social side is going better than ever. Our contrarian is visiting one of his two new friends nearly every day of the week. I have informed the parents of the situation and told them to please just let me know if it gets too much for them.

The 'Vennegruppe' last week went well. I'm glad I went with and stayed because my little chap did get very 'enthusiastic' at times but I managed to calm him down reasonably fast.

The school has introduced a 'motivational learning chart' where he gets a star if he completes X amount of questions.

He might have outgrown the stars but I will add a beyblade of his choice if he manages to get all the stars for the month.

We have to work on his motivation!

Today

One and a half hours with BUP (child and teenage psychiatric dep) answering questions and more questions. We are still not finished.

It's taking longer because there are always two answers to each question. This is how he would respond at home but this is how he responds in front of other people.

The psychiatrist told me that I have made her job difficult for her - which is a good thing. In our home we have built a 'stilas' (scaffolding) around our contrarian which has ensured his relative normal functioning.

It's when he has to face the world outside - by himself without the scaffolding that things go wobbly.

There's another appointment just before Christmas to finish the questions, another appointment to go through his WISC (IQ) test results and a separate appointment in the new year where she wants to observe him personally.

Contrarian came home all excited today. He had been invited to Jip's house. He had come home to tell me that he was going (he remembered that I told him he had to come home). But when we got to Jip's house nobody was home.

My contrarian was devastated! He couldn't understand why they had lied to him. I assured him that there must have been a misunderstanding as Jip's parents are divorced (separate houses) and the gran has picked him up from the bus stop.

Maybe Jip was at his dad's house or gran's house?

Contrarian cried loudly all the way home - it felt like the end of the world for him.

I had to listen to how boring his life was and how terribly fed up he was with watching TV (he hasn't even watched TV the last 3 days).

He recovered a short while later and we had a nice evening at home.

Cheating friends

Contrarian: "Mum, I don't know if I want to be friends with Freddy anymore - he cheats when we play playstation at his house!"

Me:"How does he cheat?"

Contrarian: "He knows all the tricks!!"

Me:"What kind of tricks?"

Contrarian: "The tricks for winning! He knows all the moves and that makes him faster! And when I asked him to show me - he was too busy playing the game and just ignored me!. Today I asked 50 times and he wouldn't tell me, he just kept playing. And only when I threatened to never come back to his house again did he stop up and show me the moves!!.

Me:"Oh so you mean that he has lots of practice and because of that he is better than you?"

Contrarian: "Yes!!"