I had thought about the book method, but figured that the second she saw the word "aspergers" she would lack interest, or refuse to believe any of it applied. She can be very stubborn. I mean, last night I tried to tell her again and again how she didnt have to reset her itunes password by simply exiting the program and then trying again, but she refused to believe me, swearing I broke it, and refused to allow me to do this for her. (Dont worry, I fixed it when she wasnt looking by doing exactly what I said)
I think what I might do instead is create a list of symptoms, ask her if she thinks any of these apply to me, and if she believes most or all do, I'll reveal to her what the diagnosis is. Im just not sure if Im ready or not. I mean, its not like its her fault. What could she have done differently? Cater to my every issue? The world doesnt revolve around me.
littlelily613 wrote:
How could they use the WISC to diagnose ADHD? Isn't that an IQ test? ADHD has nothing to do with intelligence......
Exactly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_I ... r_ChildrenQuote:
The WISC is used not only as an intelligence test, but as a clinical tool. Some practitioners use it to diagnose attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities, for example. This is usually done through a process called pattern analysis, in which the various subtests' scores are compared to one another (ipsative scoring) and clusters of unusually low scores in relation to the others are searched for. David Wechsler himself suggested this in 1958.[1]
However, the research does not show this to be a very effective way to diagnose ADHD or learning disabilities.[2] The vast majority of ADHD children do not display certain subscores substantially below others, and many children who display such patterns do not have ADHD. Other patterns for children with learning disabilities show a similar lack of usefulness of the WISC as a diagnostic tool.[3] Although, when Cattell Horn Carrol (CHC) theory is used to interpret the WISC-IV subtest things tend to make a great deal more sense. When you combine visual spatial reasoning and fluid reasoning into one index score and give it the same weight as processing speed you are bound to get lower score on this assessment.
When diagnosing children, best practice suggests that a multi-test battery (i.e., multi-factored evaluation) should be used as learning problems, attention, and emotional difficulties can have similar symptoms, co-occur, or reciprocally influence each other. For example, children with learning difficulties can become emotionally distraught and thus have concentration difficulties, begin to exhibit behavior problems, or both. Children with ADD or ADHD may show learning difficulties because of their attentional problems or also have learning disorder or mental retardation (or have nothing else). In short, while diagnosis of any childhood or adult difficulty should never be made based on IQ alone (or interview, physician examination, parent report, other test etc. for that matter) the cognitive ability test can help rule out, in conjunction with other tests and sources of information, other explanations for problems, uncover co-morbid problems, and be a rich source of information when properly analyzed and care is taken to avoid relying simply on the single summary IQ score (Sattler, 2008).
The empirical consensus is that the WISC is best used as a tool to evaluate intelligence and not to diagnose ADHD or learning disabled children. It can be used to show discrepancies between a child's intelligence and his/her performance at school (and it is this discrepancy that School Psychologists look for when using this test). In a clinical setting, learning disabilities are generally diagnosed through a comparison of intelligence scores and scores on an achievement test, such as the Woodcock Johnson III or Wechsler Individual Achievement Test II. If a child's achievement is below what would be expected given their level of intellectual functioning (as derived from an IQ test such as the WISC-IV), then a learning disability may be present.
You see, I originally thought that I was given an IQ test because my teacher wanted to enroll me in special ed. To this day this made no sense to me as I was getting good grades. My husband will occasionally claim that I have ADD, but once my mom corrected him claiming that I didnt because she had me tested. I dont have any memory of this so called testing, but do remember very vividly the IQ test. After a while I was curious about the test I took and wikied the WISC because I wanted to know more. I found out that it was once used to test for this. I guess the belief was that since I scored so high there could have been no way that I could possibly have it.
A month ago, I did find an interesting piece of paper at my moms house while pet sitting. It was a grading chart for ADHD filled out and signed by my stupid 5th grade teacher. I had no idea such a thing existed, especially back in 92. She filled out the maximum for everything with the exception of one... ..."mean and cruel to others."
15 Nov 2012, 2:07 am
