Jason's Diagnosis

Early on, Graham and I knew that Jason wasn't developing along the average curve. When he was still a toddler, we thought it might be autism as Jason has a cousin with autism and demonstrated similar behavior. Jason has qualified under the category of developmentally delayed since 2 years of preschool and 5th grade. He did a re-evaluation test (IQ) test in May this year. And with that test he no longer qualified for an IEP allowing for the accommodations that has allowed him to progress and learn. Graham and I were obviously upset at this news and I knew with a certainty that Jason would fail without any of the assistance he was used to. Graham, being an attorney, at this meeting in May asked what our legal options were. The school psychologist said only a medical diagnosis of ADHD/ADD would allow him to continue to receive accommodations.

We went to our idiot of a family doctor, who I can't wait to get rid of. He then referred us to a specialist. We waited 2 1/2 months for Jason to do his evaluation. It was 4 hours long, and I had to pack a lunch for him. The psychologist was a very nice and friendly woman. When I picked up Jason, he said he had a lot of fun. He was in such a good mood for the next 2 days.

Graham and I had an appointment with the expert this past Saturday to go over the results. Jason was diagnosed with deep dyslexia along with ADHD, sub-diagnosis inactivity. (ADD is no longer a diagnosis, it all falls under ADHD with subsets) I had actually never been more relieved to hear a diagnosis as I had at that time. It has always bothered me that Jason was labeled as developmentally delayed, without an actual diagnosis. When Graham and I were shown how Jason did on his spacial/visual recognition testing, we were completely blown away. Jason had 4 minutes to study a very complex image composed of shapes and lines, we are talking really complex. Jason had to recall and draw this 3 separate times. Graham and I were astonished as we think either of us wouldn't do as well on that as Jason did. Jason is definitely a visual learner, with severe audio processing and retrieval deficiencies. This made perfect sense to me. Jason has never been able to tell back to me any details of any story being read to him, or that he has read himself. His right hemisphere of his brain is awesome. We need to "exercise" his left hemisphere.

So Graham and I have a lot of research and learning to do. We are both relieved and ready to start doing what is best for Jason to grow and learn. I know I will feel greater joy as all of our family is able to support Jason as wee see Jason grow in knowledge and confidence. I hope I will practice better patience in this new endeavor.