Hi. My 4 year old son Cooper had his IQ test done yesterday. I really don’t understand the results. He has a lot of ADHD symptoms. He won’t sit still for very long. He is a thrill seeker where he doesn’t understand safety issues. He can become very aggressive at times with me and his dad. The strange thing is that he tries to calm down at school but he can still be impulsive at times there too. His doctor won’t diagnose him as having ADHD or Mentally Retarded. He talks like a two year old. He diagnosed him as having adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct. I really don’t agree with that because the doctor took off his PDD-NOS diagnoses and now labeled him as that. Here are his test scores:
Gross Motor: 68 (-2 13 sd) 1st %ile
Fine Motor: 67 (-2.20 sd) 1st %ile
Receptive Language: SS 68 (-2 sd) 2%ile
Expressive Language: SS 69 (-2 sd) 2%ile
Cognitive Measure:
Verbal Composite= 72 (3rd percentile)
Nonverbal Reasoning Composite= 103 (58th percentile)
Spatial Composite= 67 ( 1st percentile)
Could someone explain what they think of his testing could mean? Should I get a second opinion about not labeling him as MR? They want to put him with the normal kids in kindergarten. I’m afraid of him getting left behind or worse walk off the playground and hurt himself. Any help would help us. Thank you so much! :)
My 4 year old Cooper needs help
HI,
I agree with eoffg. Testing can be expensive, but it would be good to know more about what he is thinking and how his motor challenges interplay with his language challenges. In some areas you can find an OT and an SLP that work together who might be able to help you tease this out. Also, I would look into sensory integration activities that might help your son with frustration and generally in finding ways to calm himself. There are lots of good resources on the web and at the library. My son at age 4 craved balance challenges. When he discovered a merry-go-round in a nearby park, he played on it for hours. We found that any sort of spinning, swinging or other balance type of activity helped. We got him a “sit-n-spin” for home and it really helped him.
All the best to you and your family.
Hi Luvmykids2 and welcome to the forum,
His fine and gross motor scores, raise the question about whether he has Dyspraxia. Which is basically a motor control issue.
So that what needs to be looked into, is how much of his difficulties relate to this?
For example, with his talking like a 2 year old?
This question is whether this is a motor difficulty with speech? So that he knows what he wants to say, but can’t get the words out?
Also in regard to his aggression?
Children with fine and gross motor difficulties, experience a great deal of frustration. As it would effect nearly everything that they do. So that this frustration needs to be released, and often comes out as aggression.
You also mentioned that he ‘wont sit still for long’.
Where ‘sitting still’ might seem simple?
But in fact, a whole network of gross muscles work together, to keep you sitting in a chair. Otherwise you would slump in your chair.
Where all of the muscles need to hold a certain balanced amount of tension. So that they are ‘still’.
But with Dyspraxia, their is a difficulty with keeping just right amount of tension in the muscles?
So that to solve this, people need to keep the moving, or ‘rocking’.
But you also noted that he ‘tries to calm down at school’.
Which suggests that he ‘wants to calm down’?
Which is very different, from when a child doesn’t recognize the need to calm down?
Where a child with severe MR, might not recognize any need?
So that coming back to his Receptive and Expressive scores?
The tests involve him demonstrating his thinking.
Where I would suggest that to understand his difficulties?
His ability to think and to demonstrate his thinking, need to be looked at separately?